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YALE STUDIES IN ENGLISH 
ALBERT S. COOK, Editor 

XXXVII 

THE COLLABORATION 

OF 

WEBSTER AND DEKKER 

HY 

FREDERICK ERASTUS PIERCE, Ph.D., 

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN YALE UNIVERSITY 



A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale 
University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 



NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
1909 



Monograph 



YALE STUDIES IN ENGLISH 
ALBERT S. COOK, Editor 

XXXVII 

THE COLLABORATION 

OF 

WEBSTER AND DEKKER 

BY 

FREDERICK ERASTUS PIERCE, Ph.D.. 

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN YAI.E UNIVERSITY 



A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale 
University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 



NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
1909 






WEIMAR : PRINTED P,Y R. WAGNER SOHN 



PREFACE. 

The man who examines problems of collaboration 
faces a double danger. In the first place, there is 
always the possibility that all his labors may fail to 
convince any one but himself. In the second place, 
there is the risk that so much close and mechanical 
application may crush out the finer qualities of his 
own literary nature. I cannot claim to have avoided 
wholly either of these pitfalls ; nevertheless, after all 
the chaff has been sifted away from this little 
treatise, I hope that there may still be found a small 
residuum of wheat, as some definite addition to the 
world of knowledge ; and I also hope that my 
readers will peruse this book in the same spirit 
in which it was written — not as a piece of hack- 
work, but as a sympathetic, although necessarily 
accurate, study of two great poets. The collaborated 
plays of Beaumont and Fletcher stand as the 
monument of one of the most beautiful of human 
friendships. The collaborated plays of Webster and 
Dekker form a more humble memorial of what was 
probably a shoulder-to-shoulder alliance in their 
pitiful warfare against lifelong poverty. No apology 
is needed for attempting to throw light on such 
a partnership. 

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Professor 
Albert S. Cook and to the other members of the 
English Faculty at Yale for the assistance and in- 
spiration which they have given me in my work. 



Preface 

I also wish to thank Mr. Andrew Keogh and Mr. Henry 
A. Gruener for aid in bibliographical matters. 

A portion of the expense of printing this book has 
been borne by the Modern Language Club of Yale 
University from funds placed at its disposal by the 
generosity of Mr. George E. Dimock of Elizabeth, 
New Jersey, a graduate of Yale in the Class of 1874. 

Yale University, F. E. P. 

July 31, 1908. 



EDITIONS 
REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK. 

For Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday, Honest Whore, 
Roaring Girl, and Old Fortunatus, the references in 
this work are to the Mermaid Edition. For all of 
Dekker's other plays except Patient Grissil, the refer- 
ences are to Dekker's Dramatic Works, edition of 1873. 
For Patient Grissil, and all of Dekker's non-dramatic 
works, the references are to Grosart's edition in the 
Huth Library. The references to Webster are to 
Dyce's two-column edition of 1857, except that in 
the White Devil I have followed the division of acts 
and scenes used in the Mermaid Edition. In some 
cases I have modernized the spelling, but have made 
no other changes. 



ERRATUM. 

In parallel passages for Weshvard Ho III. 3, Webster, pas- 
sage (a) read ' most cunning ' for ' more cunning." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page 

Chapter I. Introduction 1 

„ II. The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test . . 5 

,, III. The Parallel-Passage-Test — Westward Ho 29 

"., IV. The Parallel-Passage-Test — Northward Ho 72 

„ V. Dialectic and Metrical Tests 99 

VI. The Incident-Test 106 

,. VII. The Character- and Atmosphere-Test . . 121 

„ VIII. Conclusions as to the Citizen Comedies . 129 

IX. Sir Thomas Wyatt . . 133 



Chapter I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

The collaborated plays of Webster and Dekker are 
three in number. They consist of the two so-called 
' citizen-comedies,' Westward Ho and Northward Ho 
— realistic pictures of bourgeois life — and a crude, 
rather uninteresting chronicle-play, called The Fa- 
mous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt. A careful study as 
to the probable dates of these plays has already been 
made by Mr. E. E. Stoll. According to this, Sir 
Thomas Wyatt was probably written in 1602, West- 
ward Ho in the latter part of 1604 or beginning of 
1605, and Northward Ho probably in 1606, certainly 
near that date. 1 

These dates are important, because they mean that 
at the time of this collaboration Dekker was a mature 
writer, with a long list of successful plays behind 
him; Webster was only a beginner. Before 1602 
Dekker had written The Shoemaker's Holiday, Old 
Fortunatus, and Satiro-mastix, 2 besides a number of 
plays which have been lost. 3 Between this date and 
1605 he had added Canaan's Calamity, The Wonderful Year, 
The Bachelor's Banquet, The Magnificent Entertainment given 
to King James, and the first part of The Honest Whore. 4 
Webster, on the other hand, at that date had written 
nothing which has survived ; and there is no record 
of any play wholly from his hand. Henslowe mentions 

1 John Webster, by E. E. Stoll, pp. 13-18. 

J Introduction to Mermaid Ed. of Dekker, pp. XV— XXIV. 

• Ibid., p. XVI. 

* Ibid., pp. XXVE-XXX. 



2 Chapter I 

Webster as a collaborator in three plays in 1602 — 
all now lost — but the number of other authors men- 
tioned with him would seem to imply that he had but 
little hand in these works. 1 

Now if we could point out with reasonable de- 
finiteness about what were the parts of Webster and 
Dekker in their collaborated plays, the results would 
be valuable from several different points of view. 
In the first place, we should have the scientific satis- 
faction of settling a matter of fact, and the happy 
consciousness of giving each writer his due. In the 
second place, we should gain a glimpse into Webster's 
intellectual life during his stage of growth. And 
thirdly, we should throw some light upon the range 
and limitations of Webster as an author. If Webster 
wrote the first and third scenes of Act II in West- 
ward Ho, or the parts of Captain Jenkins and Hans. 
Van Belch in Northward Ho, then he showed an 
element of pleasant humor and manysidedness which 
is not indicated anywhere else. If he did not write 
these and similar scenes in a play where he had a 
special opportunity to write them, then we shall be 
strengthened in our old belief that he was an author 
of great power, but limited range. 

The object of this thesis will be to divide the three 
collaborated plays of Webster and Dekker, and to 
point out as accurately as possible what seems to be 
the share of each. In doing this, I shall discuss 
the two citizen-comedies first, and then take up Sir 
Thomas Wyatt in a chapter by itself. 

Some time ago Mr. F. G. Fleay, in his Biographical 
Chronicle of the English Drama (2. 269-271), gave his 
opinion as to the proper division of acts and scenes. 
He assigned the last two acts of Westward Ho and 

1 John Webster, by E. E. Stoll, p. 12. 



Introduction 3 

the Doll scenes in Northivard Ho to Dekker, and all 
the rest of the two plays to Webster. For his division 
of Northivard Ho he gave no reasons whatever. His 
division of Westward Ho was based on two discrepan- 
cies in the play. The first of these is that during 
Acts I— III the time of the action is referred to as 
midsummer, and during Acts IV and V the characters 
speak as if the time were late in the fall, and the 
weather were frosty. The second discrepancy is that 
Mrs. Tenterhook is called Moll in the early part of 
the play, and Clare in Act V. Mr. Fleay is right in 
saying that these discrepancies exist ; but I think he 
is mistaken in attaching so much importance to them, 
especially when — as Mr. Stoll has already pointed out, 
and as we shall show more fully later — the whole 
evidence of style and subject-matter is overwhelmingly 
against his conclusions. These comedies were prob- 
ably written in haste, and Dekker was one of the 
most careless writers of a careless age. These dis- 
crepancies, consequently, could easily be explained 
on some other basis than that of different authorship. 
In 1905 Mr. E. E. Stoll published a book entitled 
John Webster, which contains a lengthy and valuable 
discussion of these plays. Mr. Stoll makes no attempt 
to point out the part of either author definitely, but 
contends that Dekker wrote nearly the whole of both 
plays, and that Webster's part is both slight and 
indeterminate. 1 These conclusions — which flatly con- 
tradict those of Mr. Fleay — are based on similarities 
of incident and general atmosphere. Though his 
arguments are not wholly conclusive, much of the 
material which he presents is of unquestionable value, 
and will be incorporated into this thesis in its proper 
place, with due credit to Mr. Stoll. 

1 John Webster, by E. E. Stoll, pp. 62-79. 

a2 



4 Chapter 1 

Such seems to be the state of the question at 
present. Now in the following pages we will take 
up a number of different tests which can be applied 
to these plays, and which will be found to agree 
surprisingly with one another in their conclusions. The 
first, which I have called the three-syllable Latin word- 
test, is, I believe, my own discovery. V The second, or 
parallel-passage test, is old in principle, but has never 
been worked out in detail for these plays. The other 
tests have already been taken up by previous students : 
but I shall try to summarize their work in systematic 
fashion, together with various additions of my own. 
Due credit to every one from whom I borrow will 
be given in the foot-notes. 



Chapter II. 
THE THREE-SYLLABLE LATIN WORD-TEST. 

If we compare two representative passages, one 
from Webster and one from Dekker, we become con- 
scious of a difference in their expression which is 
partly a matter of vocabulary, and partly — in the 
prose at least — a matter of rhythm. On close analysis, 
we find that this is largely due to the use of words 
of Greek or Latin derivation which contain three or 
more syllables ; such words, for example, as confusion, 
opinion, politic, immediately, satisfy, remember, misery. 
Dekker almost always [uses these words sparingly, 
whereas Webster steadily employs a great number of 
them. So persistently does Webster adhere to a 
high percentage of these words, and Dekker to a low 
percentage, from scene to scene and from play to 
play, that it becomes a marked characteristic of the 
style of each, and offers a means for distinguishing 
the work of one from that of the other. 

Now if we turn to the citizen-comedies, we find 
that five or six scenes in these two plays employ 
a large number of these words, as Webster does, while 
all the other scenes have proportionately a much 
smaller number of these words, as is the case with 
Dekker. This fact is certainly significant. 

In order to put this test on a scientific basis, and 
free it from the rambling guesswork of vague im- 
pressionism, I have tried to reduce the percentage of 
these three-syllable Greek and Latin words in different 
scenes to a common standard, so that thev could be 



6 Chapter II 

mathematically compared and tabulated. This required 
a little practical machinery. It is obviously unfair to 
compare them by the number of words to a page. 
In a scene which is partly in verse and partly in 
prose, with broken fragments of lines and wide gaps 
between the speeches, it is evident that one page may 
contain three times as much solid matter as another. 
Therefore the first thing to do, in order to get a fair 
basis for comparison, is to reduce the whole scene 
in question to solid prose lines ; that is, to find how 
many lines it would contain if it were printed as one 
solid block of prose, without breaks at the ends of 
metrical lines, without gaps between speeches, and 
without stage-directions. Then the whole number of 
three-syllable words (of Greek or Latin derivation) 
divided by the number of so!id prose lines equals 
the ratio of these words to a line. For instance, if 
a scene contains 100 solid lines and 22 of the afore- 
mentioned words, its word-average would be .220. 
If the length of the prose line, which is the standard 
of measure, is carefully kept the same, this gives the 
fairest and most accurate kind of test. I have taken 
as my standard of measure a solid prose line in 
Dyce's edition of Webster, and where I have had to 
use plays in other editions with longer or shorter 
lines, I have carefully reduced them to this standard. l 
Consequently, when I say in the following tables that 
a certain scene contains 100 solid lines, 20 words, 
and has a word-average of .200, I mean that it would 
contain 100 lines if printed as one solid block of 

1 In computing these tables. I have assumed the following as 

equivalent values : 

One line of normal blank verse = .85 solid lines in Dyce 

„ „ ,. prose, Mermaid Ed. = 1.07 „ „ „ „ 

„ „ „ „ Dekker's Works — 1.03 „ „ „ „ 
„ „ „ „ Huth Library Ed. = 1.00 „ „ „ ,, 



The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test 7 

prose in Dyce's Webster: and that, on an average, 
in that edition, every five lines would contain one 
word of three or more syllables which is of Greek or 
Latin derivation. 

Another practical question which had to be settled 
was just what should be considered as three-syllable 
Latin words. For example, what should we do with 
words like directly and instantly, which consist of 
a two-syllable Latin stem, and a Germanic suffix. In 
general, I have included these as wholly Latin, al- 
though, rather arbitrarily perhaps, I have cut out the 
word presently, which is so common with all Elizabeth- 
ans that it interferes with a test, instead of helping 
it. Whether I have been consistent as to derivation 
in all minor cases or not, I have tried to be consistent 
in following the same policy through the different 
plays of both authors, which would leave the value 
of the test, as a test, unimpaired. 1 

Now that we have settled the practical machinery 
of this test, let us look at some of the results. In 
the following table are given the word-percentages 
of the different plays of Webster and Dekker taken 
as whole plays. I have included under Webster 
the main plot of the Cure for a Cuckold. It is uncertain 

1 Owing to the practical difficulty of deciding just what shall 
be considered Latin words in special cases, a small margin of 
error should be allowed for in the tables given further on. This 
margin, however, would never be large enough to affect con- 
clusions materially, and usually would amount to practically 
nothing. I have observed the following rules throughout this 
work : 

I. Proper names and adjectives denoting nationality, such as 
Italian, are not counted, since they seem to depend more on the 
subject-matter than on the taste of the author. 

II. In three-syllable words of mixed etymology, if the word is 
two-thirds of Greek or Latin derivation, and this two-thirds 
includes the main stem of the word, the word is counted as 
wholly Latin ; otherwise it is not counted. 



8 Chapter II 

whether Webster wrote the whole of the main plot 
or not ; but he probably wrote most of it, 1 and almost 
certainly did not write the underplot. I have also 
included Patient Grissil under Dekker, although it is 
a collaborated play, since Dekker probably wrote most 
of it. 2 It is worth while, however, to remember that 
there are scenes in these two plays which were 
probably not written by either Dekker or Webs' er. 
Average. Webster's Plays. 

.349 Duchess of Malfi. 

.342 White Devil. 

.328 Appius and Virginia. 

.311 Devil's Law Case. 

.296 Cure for a Cuckold [main plot]. 
Dekker' s Plaijs. 

.252 Whore of Babylon. 

.247 Old Fortunatus. 

.225 The Devil is in It. 

.213 Satiro-mastix. 

.193 Patient Grissil [collaborated]. 

.174 Honest Whore, Part I [slightly collaborated], 

.172 Wonder of a Kingdom. 

.153 Honest Whore, Part II. 

.147 Match Me in London. 

.116 Shoemaker's Holiday. 

A glance at the above table shows that the general 
word-percentage of Dekker's plays is far below that 
of Webster's, irrespective of subject-matter or anything 
else. A gap of 40 points lies between the lowest 
play of Webster (even if he wrote it all) and the 
highest play of Dekker. But this is not all. We are 
discussing these plays in order to pass a judgment 
on the authorship of the citizen-comedies, and hence 

1 John Webster, by E. E. Stoll, pp. 34-43. 

2 Dekker's Non-Dramatic Works, Huth Library, Vol. V. p. 110. 



The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test 9 

are chiefly interested in those plays of Dekker which 
are closest to the citizen-comedies in matter and 
spirit. Now it is obvious that the three plays which stand 
highest on Dekker's list are the very three which are 
most remote from the citizen-comedies in these respects. 
The Whore of Babylon, x Old Fortunatas, and The Devil 
is in It are all abstract, romantic, semi-allegorical in 
character, and separated by a wide gap from the 
simple, middle-class realism of Dekker's other plays, 
and of Northward and Westward Ho. For a fair 
comparison, then, of Webster and Dekker, as Dekker 
would be in a bourgeois comedy, we should begin 
Dekker's list with Satiro-mastix, and the gap between 
that and A Cure for a Cuckold is 83 points. 

Now, with these preceding tables in mind, let us 
look at the separate scenes in the two citizen-comedies. 
Westward Ho. 



I. 
II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 



1 It should be remembered, also, that some critics consider the 
authorship of The Whore of Babylon uncertain. 



>cene. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average to line 


1 


251 


77 


.307 


2 


130 


28 


.215 


1 


242 


41 


.169 


2 


270 


40 


.148 


3 


129 


20 


.155 


1 


52 


13 


.250 


2 


112 


26 


.234 


3 


132 


44 


.333 


4 


65 


14 


.215 


1 


242 


41 


.169 


2 


202 


30 


.149 


1 


270 


54 


.200 


2 


8 







3 


84 


10 


.119 


4 


332 


56 


.169 



10 Chapter II 





Northward Ho. 




Act and Scene. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average to line. 


I. 1 


193 


58 


.301 


2 


108 


20 


.185 


3 


181 


18 


.100 


II. 1 


284 


22 


.078 


2 


201 


63 


.313 


III. 1 


127 


35 


.276 


2 


142 


26 


.183 


IV. 1 


287 


64 


.223 


2 


39 


7 


.179 


3 


178 


19 


.107 


V.A 1 


384 


131 


.341 


B 


162 


24 


.148 






It will be noticed at once that I. 1 and III. 3 in 
Westward Ho, and I. 1, II. 2, and V. A in Northward 
Ho, are above .300; that only two scenes, one of them 
very short — III. 1 in Westward Ho and III. 1 in North- 
ward Ho — lie in that wide gap between .300 and .234; 
and that all the other scenes are below .234, all but 
two of them below 216. The very width of this great 
empty gap seems in itself to be a silent witness of 
a dividing line. Then it will be remembered that 
the lowest of Webster's plays has an average of just 
barely below .300, and that the highest of Dekker's 
realistic comedies stops at .213. 

Now, from a lawyer's point of view, this would be 
a good place to halt. But we are not trying to build 
up a case, but to find the truth, whether that truth 
agrees with our theories or not ; hence a further 
search is necessary. Hitherto we have been com- 
paring separate scenes in Northward Ho and Westward 

1 Act V is all one scene. I have divided it for very obvious 
reasons into Parts A and B. B begins at the stage-direction, 
Enter Philip, Leverpool, and Chartley. 



The Three-syllable Latin Word -Test 11 

Ho with whole plays. This obviously is not fair. To 
be consistent and sure of our ground, we must make 
certain that the separate scenes in the uncollaborated 
plays do not vary like the separate scenes in the 
collaborated plays, whatever their final average. The 
average of Westward Ho as a complete play is only 
.190; and if we had followed that, we should have 
given the whole play to Dekker. This means that 
we need a tabulated examination of all the plays by 
Webster and Dekker, scene by scene. If they will 
stand examination in this way, we shall know that 
we are building upon bed-rock. As a matter of fact, 
we shall find that there are a few scenes in Webster 
which are quite low, and a few scenes in Dekker 
which are quite high ; but that these exceptions in 
both cases are exceedingly rare, and that nearly all 
the high scenes of Dekker are from The Whore of 
Babylon, Old Fortunatus, and The Devil is in It, the 
very three plays which, as we have already observed, 
are least in point in discussing realistic middle-class 
comedy. 

Plays of Webstee. 
Duchess of Malfi. 



and Scene. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average 


I. 1 


424 


166 


.391 


II. 1 


161 


55 


.342 


2 


70 


14 


.200 


3 


67 


25 


.373 


4 


71 


28 


.394 


5 


67 


23 


.343 


II. 1 


78 


34 


.436 


2 


275 


91 


.331 


3 


61 


27 


.443 


4 


23 


11 


.478 


5 


117 


33 


.282 



12 Chapter II 

Act and Scene. Solid lines. Words. Average. 



IV. 1 


116 


47 


.405 


2 


296 


98 


.331 


V. 1 


64 


24 


.375 


2 


279. 


97 


.347 


3 


48 


16 


.333 


4 


65 


20 


.308 


5 


97 
White Devil. 


21 


.216 


I. 1 


53 


22 


.415 


2 


313 


106 


.339 


II. 1 


268 


82 


.306 


2 


63 


12 


.190 


3 


48 


15 


.312 


4 


63 


29 


.460 


III. 1 


383 


165 


.430 


2 


112 


40 


.357 


IV. 1 


203 


69 


.339 


2 


119 


50 


.420 


V. 1 


210 


63 


.300 


2 


68 


14 


.206 


3 


215 


70 


.326 


4 


125 


30 


.240 


5 


13 


6 


.461 


6 


256 


87 


.340 




Appius and Virginia. 




I. 1 


115 


43 


.374 


2 


38 


12 


.316 


3 


172 


49 


.285 


II. 1 


72 


34 


.472 


2 


179 


76 


.424 


3 


171 


51 


.298 


III. 1 


102 


27 


.265 


2 


305 


89 


.292 






The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test 13 



Act and Scene. 


Solid lines 


. Words. 


Average, 


3 


23 


10 


.435 


4 


69 


8 


.116 


IV. i 


258 


92 


.356 


2 


153 


48 


.314 


V. 1 


40 


16 


.400 


2 


95 


30 


.316 


3 


151 


53 


.351 




Devil's Law 


Case. 




I. 1 


166 


49 


.295 


2 


224 


64 


.286 


II. 1 


270 


86 


.318 


2 


39 


13 


.333 


3 


130 


40 


.307 


4 


37 


12 


.324 


III. 1 


24 


5 


.208 


2 


133 


43 


.323 


3 


326 


124 


.380 


IV. 1 


93 


30 


.323 


2 


508 


154 


.303 


V. 1 


33 


5 


.151 


2 


34 


9 


.265 


3 


26 


8 


.308 


4 


142 


38 


.267 


5 


20 


5 


.250 


6 


72 


23 


.319 



Cure for a Cuckold. 

(Underplot scenes, and parts of scenes, are bracketed.) 

I. 1 149 

2 163 

II. 1 42 

2 85 

[3] [156] 

4 133 



47 


.318 


48 


.294 


10 


.238 


30 


.353 


[15] 


[.096] 


27 


.203 



14 



Chapter II 



Act and Scene. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average 


III. 1 


122 


42 


.344 


[2] 


[100] 


[9] 


[.090] 


3 


89 


25 


.281 


IV. [1] 


[213] 


[41] 


[.193] 


2 


170 


53 


.313 


[3] 


[124] 


[24] 


[.194] 


V. 1 


230 


69 


.300 



2, A. 

[2, BY 



71 

[52] 



20 
[10] 



.282 
[.192] 



Decker's Plats. 
A. — Romantic and allegorical plays. 

Whore of Babylon. 



Scenes and pages. 2 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average. 


I. (192-201) 


211 


62 


.293 


II. (201-211) 


241 


66 


.274 


III. (211-220) 


246 


63 


.256 


IV. (220-226) 


154 


28 


.182 


V. (227-235) 


225 


73 


.320 


VI. (235-241) 


137 


43 


.314 


VII. (241-246) 


124 


27 


.218 


VIII. (246-252) 


150 


20 


.133 


IX. (253-259) 


151 


53 


.329 3 


X. (259-269) 


259 


53 


.205 


XL (269-271) 


54 


13 


.241 


XII. (271-275) 


101 


20 


.198 


XIII. (275-278) 


42 


10 


.238 



1 Scene divided at, Enter Compass, Raymond, etc. 

2 Pages cited are those in Dekker's Dramatic Works, ed. 1873. 

3 Contains a proclamation which has 18 lines and 15 words. 
Without the proclamation, it averages below .270 



The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test 15 





Old Fortunatus. 




md Scene. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Avera£ 


I. 1 


295 


86 


.292 


2 


200 


30 


.150 


3 


83 


23 


.277 


II. 1 


105 


24 


.229 


2 


375 


104 


.277 


III. 1 


304 


86 


.283 


2 


135 


32 


.237 


IV. 1 


199 


35 


.176 


2 


122 


31 


.254 


V. 1 


166 


36 


.217 


2 


304 


86 


.283 



The Devil is in It. 



Scenes and pages. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average, 


I. (265-271) 


110 


22 


.200 


II. (271-280) 


198 


38 


.192 


HI. (280-287) 


164 


56 


.341 ! 


IV. (287-295) 


183 


19 


.104 


V. (295-303) 


166 


27 


.163 


VI. (303-307) 


71 


19 


.268 


VII. (307-308) 


46 


10 


.218 


VIII. (308-314) 


126 


27 


.214 


IX. (314-322) 


150 


30 


.200 


X. (322-325) 


71 


17 


.239 


XL (325-330) 


117 


25 


.214 


XII. (330-331) 


31 


4 


.129 


XIII. (331-334) 


52 


15 


.288 


XIV. (334-348) 


294 


71 


.242 


XV. (348-359) 


218 


58 


.266 



1 Scene at monastery, full of semi-technical religious terms. 



16 Chapter II 

B. — Realistic comedies like the citizen-comedies. 







Satiro-mastix, 






Scenes and pages. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average 


I. (185-191) 


150 


20 


.133 


II. (191 


-203) 


353 


68 


.193 


III. (203 


-211) 


190 


29 


.153 


IV. (211 


-213) 


60 


14 


.233 


V. (213-222) 


249 


41 


.165 


VI. (222 


-225) 


66 


11 


.167 


VII. (225-232) 


188 


41 


.218 


VIII. (232-238) 


166 


41 


.247 


IX. (238 


-246) 


248 


64 


.258 


X. (246-252) 


151 


29 


.192 


XL (252-264) 


326 


92 


.282 




Patient 


Grissil [collaborated]. 




Act and 


Scene. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average. 


I. 


1 


66 


15 


.227 




2 


302 


43 


.142 


II. 


1 


302 


81 


.268 




2 


144 


27 


.187 


III. 


1 


149 


42 


.282 




2 


260 


71 


.273 


IV. 


1 


198 


34 


.172 




2 


191 


27 


.141 




3 


272 


25 


.092 


V. 


1 


90 


18 


.200 




2 


280 


54 


.193 




Honest Whore, Part I. 




I. 


1 


125 


30 


.240 




2 


126 


15 


.119 




3 


84 


18 


.215 



The Three-syllable Latin Word -Test 17 

Act and Scene. Solid lines. Words. Average. 

4 55 

5 181 
II. 1 376 

III. 1 216 

2 76 

3 102 

IV. 1 162 

2 44 

3 142 

4 99 
V. 1 98 

2 419 

Wonder of a Kingdom. 



18 


.327 l 


32 


.177 


72 


.192 


34 


.157 


18 


.237 


28 


.274 


27 


.167 


5 


.114 


15 


.106 


22 


.222 


18 


.184 


49 


.117 



I. 1 


82 


11 


.134 


2 


77 


10 


.130 


3 


75 


11 


.147 


4 


134 


29 


.217 


II. 1 


112 


15 


.134 


2 


145 


29 


.200 


III. 1 


190 


35 


.184 


2 


75 


15 


.200 


3 


43 


5 


.117 


IV. 1 


49 


11 


.224 


2 


155 


41 


.264 


3 


53 


7 


.132 


4 


49 


5 


.102 


V. 1 


47 


7 


.149 


2 


123 


12 


.098 



1 Possibly the work of Middleton, who had some slight share 
in this play. It is near that part of the play in which Mr. Bullen 
thinks that he sees traces of Middleton's hand. 



18 



Chapter II 





Honest 


Whore 


, Part II. 




Act and 


Scene. Solid lines. Words. 


Average 


I. 1 




150 


15 


.100 


2 




184 


21 


.114 


3 




102 


18 


.176 


II. 1 




220 


24 


.109 


2 




100 


5 


.050 


III. 1 




187 


20 


.107 


2 




124 


9 


.073 


3 




92 


6 


.065 


IV. 1 




322 


55 


.171 


2 




95 


11 


.116 


3 




131 


28 


.214 


V. 1 




23 


3 


.130 


2 




408 


75 


.184 




Match 


Me in 


London. 






Pages. 








I. 1 


;i35-142) 


135 


11 


.081 


2 ( 


142-149) 


160 


19 


.119 


II. 1 


[150-158) 


187 


28 


.149 


2 j 


;i58-162) 


92 


11 


.120 


3 ( 


162-168) 


94 


11 


.117 


III. 1 


[168-176) 


156 


24 


.154 


2 ( 


;i76-184) 


168 


29 


.173 


3 ( 


184-188) 


90 


7 


.078 


IV. 1 ( 


188-194) 


130 


19 


.146 


2 ( 


194-197) 


66 


13 


.197 


3 ( 


197-201) 


86 


15 


.198 


4 ( 


;202-206) 


77 


18 


.234 


V. 1 ( 


206-212) 


115 


15 


.130 


2 


[212-216) 


85 


21 


.247 




Shoemaker's 


Holiday. 




I. 1 




211 


43 


.204 


II. 1 




62 


12 


.193 



The Three-syllable Latin Word -Test 19 



Act and Scene. 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average 


2 


20 


2 


.100 


3 


105 


5 


.048 


4 


14 


2 


.143 


5 


55 


2 


.036 


III. i 


123 


11 


.089 


2 


46 


9 


.196 


3 


88 


12 


.136 


4 


141 


13 


.092 


5 


88 


9 


.102 


IV. 1 


105 


11 


.105 


2 


42 


3 


.071 


3 


64 


5 


.078 


4 


40 


6 


.150 


5 


134 


8 


.060 


V. 1 


55 


5 


.090 


2 


189 


19 


.101 


3 


13 


5 


.384 1 


4 


70 


8 


.114 



5 167 22 .132 

The above results would seem to be striking 
enough in themselves ; but they will become more so 
under a little examination. In the first place, we must 
lay it down as a law that the value of the word-test 
varies with the length of the scene. In both Dekker 
and Webster the word-average frequently does not 
move along a plane, but varies up and down with 
a kind of wave-motion, which adjusts itself to a proper 
sea-level within the length of a reasonably long scene. 
There are many short passages in Dekker which, 
taken by themselves, would have a word-average of 
over .300, when the whole scene from which they are 
taken is below .200. In the same way, very low short 

1 Too short to count ; see discussion later. 

1)2 



20 Chapter II 

passages could be culled from scenes in Webster, 
which, as scenes, are high. Roughly speaking, we 
may say that the word-test is decidedly unreliable in 
a scene of fewer than thirty lines, and much stronger 
in one of a hundred lines than in one of sixty. In 
Westward Ho and Northward Ho the scenes are long, 
twenty-two of them, out of a total of twenty-six, 1 being 
well above one hundred lines ; hence the test here 
is quite reliable. 

Now if we glance at the preceding tables, we find 
that most of Webster's lowest scenes and some of 
Dekker's highest scenes are very short; and that the 
average of the former would be very much raised, 
that of the latter much lowered, by including them 
with adjacent scenes. For instance, V. 3 of The Shoe- 
maker s Holiday has an average of .384; but it con- 
tains only 13 solid lines, and if it were included in 
either one of the adjacent scenes, the whole would 
have an average far below .200. 

Again, if we read over some of Dekker's high- 
average scenes in the semi-allegorical plays, we find 
that there are forces in them which exert an abnor- 
mal influence on the vocabulary. For instance, The 
Whore of Babylon is the story of a religious war ; and 
in the councils of the Catholic leaders such words 
as heresy, excommunicate, absolution, etc., are inevitably 
drawn upon in great numbers. Likewise, Scene III 
of The Devil is in It is at a monastery; and its re- 
markable average of .341 is largely due to this 
inevitable element in the speech of churchmen. Even 
then, this one scene in The Devil is in It, and three 
scenes in The Whore of Babylon, are the only ones in 



2 Not counting the chamberlain-scene, V. 2, which is a mere 
fragment of eight lines. 






The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test 21 

these plays which rise above .300: and one of these 
three scenes in The Whore of Babylon would drop 
below . 270 if we excluded a short and very elaborate 
proclamation, which is not at all a fair representative 
of dramatic dialogue. So Dekker under abnormal con- 
ditions maintains a lower level than Webster does 
under normal ones ; and the moment that Dekker's 
surroundings become normal, a magic circle seems 
to hold even his highest scenes well below .300. 

There are two short scenes which deserve special 
consideration. The first is I. 4 in Part I of The Honest 
Whore. This is not under any abnormal influence, 
but a simple fragment of commonplace life ; yet its 
word-average is .327. It is a short scene (55 lines); 
but its size, though small enough to diminish the value 
of the word-test, is not small enough to render it 
worthless. We know that Middleton had some part 
in this play, and the most satisfactory theory would 
be that he wrote the scene in question. Even if he 
did not, it would simply be the exception which proves 
the rule, since it is the only scene of bourgeois life in 
all Dekker's plays which has an average above .300. 

The other scene which needs discussion is Appius 
and Virginia III. 4. This is by far the lowest scene 
in W 7 ebster, having an average of only .116; and, 
although it is not a long scene (69 lines), it is too 
long to be lightly thrown aside. Now there are several 
peculiar things about this scene. In the first place, it is 
wholly in prose, except for one scrap of doggerel rime. 
Now Webster does not usually have whole scenes 
in prose, nor is he fond of doggerel rime. Second- 
ly, the scene does not advance the action at all; 1 

1 To be sure, Corbulo says that Numitorius has sent a messenger 
to Virginius; but the audience have already seen the messenger 
sent at the end of III. 2. 



22 Chapter II 

it could be left out, and no one would know the 
difference. Thirdly, there is nothing in the scene, 
from beginning to end, which sounds like the Web- 
ster we know. In short, this scene has all the earmarks 
of an interpolation ; and, in general character, it is 
just such a scene as might be put in to amuse the 
groundlings. 

The general results of this detailed examination of 
Dekker's and Webster's plays may be summed up in 
the following tables. Table I includes all scenes, 
irrespective of conditions. Table II omits the 
two doubtful scenes discussed above, omits The 
Whore of Babylon, Old Fortunatus, and The Devil is in It 
altogether, and considers every scene of less than 
60 lines as part of the shortest adjacent scene. The 
first table compares Webster and Dekker in general. 
The second table compares Webster with Dekker as 
he appears in the bourgeois comedies under discussion. 

Table I. 

Webster Dekker 

Total number of scenes 74 140 

Scenes above .299 51 or 68.9 °/ 6 or 4.3 °/ 

Scenes .299-.275 9 or 12.2°/ 9 or 6.1 °/ 

Scenes .274-.225 6 or 8.1°/ 23 or 16.4 °/ 

Scenes .225-.200 5 or 6.8°/ 17 or 12.1 °/ 

Scenes below .200 3 or 4.1 °/ 85 or 60.7 °/ 

Table II. 

Total number of scenes 60 88 

Scenes above .299 41 or 68.3°/o none 

Scenes .299-.275 10 or 16.7 °/ 2 or 2.3 °/ 

Scenes .274-.225 5 or 8.3°/ 12 or 13.6 °/ 

Scenes .224-.200 4 or 6.7 °/ 9 or 10.2 °/ 

Scenes below .200 none 65 or 73.9 °/ 



The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test 23 

Now, even if we should take the most unfavorable 
attitude possible toward our theory, and base our 
calculations on Table I instead of Table II, we 
should still, according to the mathematical the- 
ory of chances, have the following results : (a) When 
a scene has a word -average of .300 or over, 
the chances are 68.9 to 4.3, or 16 to 1, that Web- 
ster, and not Dekker, wrote it; (b) when a scene 
is below .200, the chances are 60.7 to 4.1, or 15 to 1, 
that Dekker, and not Webster, wrote it. This disposes 
at once of 19 scenes out of 26. Again, since only 
11 per cent, of Webster's scenes (only 7 per cent, in 
Table II) are below .225, there is but little chance 
that Webster had very much part in any of the 5 
scenes between .200 and .225. These were probably 
either written wholly by Dekker, or else written 
largely by him, with some little help from Webster. 
Two scenes are now left unassigned. For III. 1 of 
Westward Ho the word-test must be pronounced 
almost worthless. Not only is its brief length a 
drawback, but, much more important, its average of 
.250 is the most indeterminate number possible. In 
this scene we must depend on other tests. III. 1 of 
Northward Ho will perhaps be best understood if we 
analyze the word-averages of the different characters. 
They are as follows : 

Northward Ho III. 1. 

Solid lines. Words. Average. 

Doll 67 14 .209 

Philip 31 15 .484 

Bellamont ... 22 6 .273 

Minor characters . 7 .000 

Totals 127 35 .276 



24 Chapter II 

I do not think the above proves that Webster wrote 
the parts of Philip and Bellamont 1 , because when a 
scene is slashed into such small fragments, the word- 
test loses much of its value ; but nevertheless the 
above figures are certainly suspicious. 

One word more. Since the citizen-plays are wholly 
in prose, and since we wish to be sure of our ground, 
it may be worth while to glance in passing at Dekker's 
non-dramatic prose. Now there is a certain minor 
part of Dekker's prose, of which The Gull's Hornbook 
is the best example, which, instead of having a low 
average, has one about as high as that of Webster's 
plays. However, this is easily explained. The Gull's 
Hornbook is absolutely undramatic throughout, without 
dialogue, and written wholly in a mock-heroic vein. 
Its burlesque grandiloquence explains its high average. 
But the great mass of Dekker's prose, and especially 
that part of it which approaches nearest to comedy, 
has the same low word- average as his plays. The 
best example of this is The Bachelor's Banquet, which 
is closer to comedy in general, and far closer to 
Westward Ho in particular, than any other of his non- 
dramatic works. The following table shows the word- 
test in The Bachelor's Banquet: 



apter. 

I 


Solid lines. 
367 


Words. 

81 


Average 
.220 


II 


161 


34 


.211 


III 


483 


64 


.132 


IV 


196 


25 


.128 


V 


334 


47 


.140 


VI 


241 


36 


.149 



1 Webster could not have written every word of their speeches, 
as is shown by the parallel-passage test ; but he may have 
written most of them. 



The Three-syllable Latin Word-Test 25 



hapter 


Solid lines. 


Words. 


Average. 


VII 




228 


48 


.210 


VIII 




182 


20 


.110 


IX 




222 


31 


.140 


X 




99 


24 


.242 


XI 




263 


62 


.236 


XII 




75 


20 


.266 


XIII 




115 


34 


.296 


XIV 




140 


51 


.364 


XV 


Totals 


219 


37 


.169 




3325 


614 


.185 



Not only is the general average in this book low, 
but the lowest chapters are the most dramatic, con- 
tain the most dialogue and the most character-photo- 
graphy. The higher chapters are those in which this 
fades away into a burlesque monologue ; and the 
highest chapter in the book (Chapter XIV, average 
. 364) is one of the few chapters in the whole work 
which do not contain a single word of dialogue, but 
resembles rather the mock-heroic tone of The Gull's 
Hornbook. 

To conclude, then, the further we examine the 
works of Webster and Dekker, the more evidence we 
find that the former almost invariably 1 has a high 
word-average, and that the latter, as a playwright at 
least, consistently has a very low one. Consequently, 
when we find five or six scenes in the citizen-comedies 

1 The f ollowing table shows the word-averages of the few short 
poems which Webster has left us : 



Monumental Column 279 


88 


.315 


To Munday ... 10 


5 




Ode 16 


4 




To Heywood ... 19 


6 




To Cockeran ... 7 







Totals 331 


103 


.311 



26 Chapter II 

with Webster's high average, nineteen or twenty with 
Dekker's low average, and a wide, almost empty gap 
between, we are justified in assuming that Webster 
wrote — not all perhaps — but certainly the larger part 
of the former scenes ; and that Dekker wrote all or 
nearly all of the latter. We might expect to find 
some casual trace of Dekker's revising touches in 
the higher scenes, or of Webster's in the lower : but 
we certainly should not expect that either of these 
writers would have any considerable part in such scenes. 
The word -test, then, would seem to indicate the 
following division of scenes : 

Webster's Part. 
Westward Ho, I. 1 and III. 3. 
Northward Ho, I. 1 ; II. 2 ; V. A. 

Dekker's Part. 
Westward Ho, I. 2 ; II. ; III. 2 ; III. 4 ; IV ; V. 
Northward Ho, I. 2 : I. 3 ; II. 1 ; III. 2 : IV : V. B. 

Uncertain. 

Westward Ho, III. 1. 

Northward Ho, III. 1. 
It will be noticed that this test, while not going 
quite so far as Mr. Stoll, in the main agrees with him 
in giving by far the larger part of the two plays to 
Dekker. 

Of course we realize that this test, like any test, 
is not absolutely infallible. But when we consider 
that the plays of Dekker which we have discussed 
range through every walk of life and every phase 
of human emotion, from the king's palace in Match 
Me in London to the home of the day laborer in the 
Shoemaker's Holidaij, from the pure presence of Jane 
to the reeking atmosphere of the brothel, from the 
tragedy of Hippolito's grief and the Duke's dignified 



The Three-syllable Latin Word -Test 



27 



anger to the vulgar mirth of prentices and bawds, 
and that through all this he steadily keeps a low 
word-average, while Webster has a high one, we 
must admit that this test has a decided value. 1 And 
if we can support this test by other evidence agreeing 
with it, we may hope, in part of the scenes at least, 
to arrive at what a court would call reasonable proof. 
A considerable amount of such supporting evidence 
will be found in the following chapters. 

1 One interesting proof of the value of this test is found bj* - 
tracing the word-average of a single character from scene to 
scene. If a single character is the work of one author, we 
should certainly expect such a character to be reasonably consis- 
tent in vocabulary. On the contrary, the language of Birdlime 
and Justiniano in Westward Ho, and of Bellamont and Mayberry 
in Northward Ho, varies remarkably. 

Birdlime 



Westward Ho. 


Solid lines. ~\ 


Vords. 


Average. 


I. 


1 


104 


36 


.346 


II. 


2 


156 


18 


.116 


II. 


3 


5 


1 


^too short) 


IV. 


1 


99 


17 


.172 


V. 


3 


28 


3 


.107 (short) 


V. 


4 


23 
Justiniano. 


1 


.043 (short) 


I. 


1 


92 


23 


.250 


II. 


1 


152 


24 


.158 


II. 


3 


54 


12 


.222 


III. 


3 


106 


38 


.358 


IV. 


1 


20 


6 


.300 (too short) 


IV. 


2 


103 


13 


.126 


V. 


4 


140 

Bellamont. 


27 


.193 


Northward Ho. 








I. 


1 


52 


18 


.346 


I. 


3 


45 


3 


.067 


II. 


2 


46 


23 


.500 


in. 


1 


22 


6 


.273 (short) 


IV. 


1 


108 


31 


.287 


IV. 


3 


62 


2 


.032 


V. 


A 


176 


72 


.409 


V. 


B 


42 


6 


.143 



28 



Chapter II 



Bellamont's rather high average in IV. 1 may possibly be due 
merely to his affected style, since he is talking here in poetry ; it 
is probably a burlesque on Chapman's grandiloquence. But the 
radical extremes in the other scenes cannot be explained. 

May berry. 
Solid lines. 
54 
60 
57 
62 
15 
37 
51 

In I. 1 Mayberry's low average in a high-average scene seems 
rather suspicious, especially as his total part is nearly 60 lines 
in length. His change of heart in II. 2 is certainly peculiar. 



Northward Ho 


I. 


1 


I. 


3 


II. 


2 


IV. 


1 


IV. 


3 


V. 


A 


V. 


B 



ords. 

7 


Average. 
.130 


5 


.083 


20 


.351 


9 


.145 


1 
8 
5 


(too short) 
.216 (short) 
.098 



Chapter III. 

THE PARALLEL -PASSAGE TEST. 
WESTWARD HO. 

The value of parallel passages as a test of author- 
ship has been almost universally recognized. Now if 
this is true of authors in general, it certainly is true 
of Dekker and Webster ; for each of these men has 
the habit of repeating his own phrases from play to 
play, until it becomes a positive mannerism. Mr. Stoll 
has already published a long list of almost verbatim 
parallels from the various plays of Webster, 1 and a 
still longer list of similar parallels between his own 
plays might easily be gathered from the works of 
Dekker. On the other hand, while each of these 
writers constantly repeats himself, neither shows any 
tendency in later plays to repeat the phraseology of 
the other. Five or six parallelisms 2 may be pointed 

1 John Webster, pp. 80-82. 
* Dyce has the following : 
White Devil, p. 21 : 

They are first 
Sweetmeats which rot the eater. 
Whore of Babylon, 1607, Sig. I. 2 : 

Good words, 
Sweetmeats which rot the eater. 
Duchess of Malfi III. 2 : 

Our weak safety 
Runs upon enginous wheels. 
Whore of Babylon, 1607, Sig. C. 2 : 

For that one act gives, like an enginous wheel, 
Motion to all. 

I have been unable to find more than two or three other 
parallels in carefully reading all the works of both authors. 



30 Chapter III 

out in the whole range of their writing, and that is 
all. Possibly a critic would have the right to contend 
in the same way that one or two of the parallel 
passages following might be likewise due to chance 
or imitation; but such would constitute a mere drop 
in the bucket. No man in general forms the habit 
of using his friends' little turns of phrase ; thus Web- 
ster and Dekker habitually repeat themselves, but 
neither the other. Consequently, when we find from 
three to twelve parallel passages in a single scene 
from one author, we have every right to consider it 
as the strongest kind of evidence for his authorship. 
Like all other evidence, it is cumulative, and the greater 
the number of passages, the stronger is the proof. 

One word of explanation should be given in regard 
to the following passages. Besides the parallels which 
are of unquestionable value, the student often finds 
a number which present a rather shadowy likeness; 
and he frequently hesitates as to whether they are 
worth including or not. Since opinions often differ 
as to the exact value of passages, and since it is 
obviously better to include several almost worthless ones 
than to lose one good one, I have retained a number 
which are, I think, of some value, but far from con- 
vincing. The reader is requested to consider all the 
evidence at its real worth, and not be prejudiced too 
much by a single passage which is either very strong 
or very weak. For the sake of convenience," I have, 
in a number of cases, recorded my own opinion at 
the end of the passage. A question-mark in brackets 
at the end of a passage means that I do not consider 
the passage very strong, although I have thought it 
worth including. A single asterisk in brackets means 
that the passages owe some of their parallelism 
to a proverbial expression or literary tradition, but 



The Parallel- Passage Test — Westward Ho 31 

that nevertheless the parallelism seems valuable as 
proof. 

There is another consideration which is very im- 
portant in estimating the shares of Webster and 
Dekker in any particular scene. Dekker's extant 
works, including practically all of nine plays, large 
parts of several others, and four or five volumes of 
non- dramatic writing, form a total about four times 
as bulky as all that Webster has left us. Conse- 
quently, when Dekker uses a particular phrase in 
Westward Ho, he has about four times as many chances 
as Webster has of using it again elsewhere. Again, 
many of Dekker's other plays are more or less similar 
in spirit to Westward Ho; therefore phrases which he 
had used before in earlier similar plays would naturally 
bubble up in this play ; and phrases which had been 
used in this play would, by the law of association of 
ideas, rise spontaneously in the similar scenes of 
later plays. Most of Webster's other works, on the 
contrary, are dignified, heavy tragedy, in verse instead 
of prose ; and consequently the phrases which he had 
used in an early bourgeois comedy would not be 
nearly so apt to reappear. These two facts should 
always be borne in mind ; for we shall find several 
scenes with a high word-average in which the parallel 
passages from the two poets seem at first sight of 
about equal value. But when we consider these two 
facts, we realize that Webster must have had by far 
the larger share, and that Dekker probably simply 
retouched the scene. 

The following are the parallel passages which I have 
collected for Westward Ho. 



32 Chapter III 

Westward Ho. 

Act I, Scene 1. 

(251 solid lines; word-average, 307.) 

Passages from Webster. 

(a) Westward Ho I. 1 : Stay, tailor, this is the house. 
Devil's Law Case III. 2 : But stay, I lose myself, this is the 

house. 

(b) Westward Ho I. 1 : But Devil's Law Case I. 1 : 
your lady orjustice-o'-the-peace Leonora [a merchant's wife.] 
madam carries high wit from Indeed, the Exchange bell 
the city [i. e. from the city makes us dine so late, | I think 
dames, ladies learn from bour- the ladies of the court from 
geoises], namely, to receive us | Learn to lie so long abed, 
all and pay all, to awe their Devil's Law Case III. 1 : Why, 
husbands, to check their hus- they use their lords as if they 
bands, to control their hus- were their wards, | And, as 
bands, your Dutch women in the Low 

Countries | Take all and pay 
all, and do keep their hus- 
bands | So silly all their lives 
of their own estate, 
nay, they have the trick Duchess of Malfi III. 2. You 
on't to be sick for a new gown, had the trick in audit time 

to be sick. 

Also for the triple formation of the sentence in 
' to awe their husbands, to check their husbands, to 
control their husbands,' compare 

White Devil III. 1 : There are not Jews enough, priests 
enough, nor gentlemen enough. 

(c) Westward Ho I. 1 : My good old lord and master, that 
hath been a tilter this twenty year, hath sent it. [*] 

White Devil II. 4 : For none are judges at tilting but those 
who have been old tilters. 

White Devil I. 2 : Camillo — a lousy slave, that within 
this twenty years rode with the black guard. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 33 

(d) Westward Ho I. 1 : O the entertainment my lord will 
make you, — sweet wines, lusty diet, perfumed linen, 
soft beds. 

White Devil I. 2. Thou shalt lie in a bed stuffed with 
turtles' feathers; swoon in perfumed linen. 

(e) Westward Ho I. 1 : No German clock, nor mathematical 
engine whatsoever, requires so much reparation as a woman's 
face. 

Duchess of Malfi I. 1 : I would, then, have a mathematical 
instrument made for her face. [*] 

(f) Notice in the following passages the juxtaposition 
of 'dream' and 'methought ': 

Westward Ho I. 1 : I dreamed last night you looked so 
prettily, so sweetly, methought so like the wisest lady of 
them all. 

White Devil V. 3 : Wilt thou believe me, sweeting ? by 
this light, 
I was a-dreamt on thee, too ; for methought 
I saw thee . . . 

Francisco. Yes, and for fashion's sake I'll dream with her. 
Zanche. Methought, sir, you came stealing to my bed . . . 
Zanche. As I told you, 
Methought you lay down by me. 
Francisco. So dreamt I. 

Duchess of Malfi III. 5 : Duch. I had a very strange 
dream tonight. Antonio. What was it ? Duch. Methought 
I wore my coronet of state. 

(g) Westward Ho I. 1 : Just. Painting, painting. 

Bird. I have of all sorts, forsooth : here is the burned pow- 
der of a hog's jawbone, to be laid with the oil of white poppy, 
an excellent fucus to kill morphew, weed out freckles, and 
a most excellent groundwork for painting ; here is ginimony 
likewise burned and pulverized, to be mingled with the 
juice of lemons, sublimate mercury, and two spoonfuls of 
the flowers of brimstone, a most excellent receipt to cure 
the flushing in the face. 



34 Chapter III 

Duchess of Malfi II. 1 : You come from painting now . . . 
One would suspect it [your closet] for a shop of witchcraft, 
to find in it the fat of serpents, spawn of snakes, Jews' 
spittle, and their young children's ordure; and all these for 
the face. 

(h) Westward Ho I. 1 : Love a woman for her tears ! Let 
a man love oysters for their water : for women, though they 
should weep liquor enough to serve a dyer or a brewer, 
yet they may be as stale as wenches that travel every 
second tide between Gravesend and Billingsgate. 

Appius and Virginia III. 2 : Of all waters, I would not 
have my beef powdered with a widow's tears . . . They are 
too fresh, madam ; assure yourself, they will not last for the 
death of fourteen husbands above a day and a quarter. 

White Devil V. 3 : 

These are but moonish shades of grief and fears; 
There's nothing sooner dry than women's tears. 

(i) Westward Ho I. 1 : Just. Ay, ay, provoking resistance ; 
'tis as if you come to buy wares in the city, bid money 
for't ; your mercer or goldsmith says, " Truly I cannot take 
it," lets his customer pass his stall, next, nay, perhaps two 
or three ; but if he find he is not prone to return of him- 
self, he calls him back, and back, and takes his money : 
so you, my dear wife, — O the policy of women and trades- 
men ! they'll bite at anything. 

White Devil I. 2 : Flamineo. 'Bove merit ! — we may now 
talk freely — 'bove merit ! What is't you doubt ? her coyness ? 
that's but the superficies of lust most women have : yet why 
should ladies blush to hear that named which they do not 
fear to handle ? Oh, they are politic : they know our desire 
is increased by the difficulty of enjoying, whereas satiety 
is a blunt, weary and drowsy passion. 

(j) Westward Ho I. 1 : Mrs. Just. Would you have me 
turn common sinner, or sell my apparel to my waistcoat 
and become a laundress? Just. No laundress, dear wife, 
though your credit would go far with gentlemen for taking 
up of linen; no laundress. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 35 

White Devil III. 2 : 

Did I want 
Ten leash of courtezans, it would furnish me; 
Nay, laundress three armies. 
Devil's Law Case I. 2 : [Romelio to Winifred] 

You, lady of the laundry, come hither. [?] 

(k) Westward Ho I. 1 : Do not send me any letters ; do not 
seek any reconcilement ; by this light, I'll receive none . . . 
I hope we shall ne'er meet more. 

White Devil II. 1 : 

Henceforth, I'll never lie with you, by this, 
This wedding ring, I'll ne'er more lie with thee, 
And this divorce shall be as truly kept 
As if in thronged court a thousand ears 
Had heard it. [?] 

(1) Westward Ho I. 1 : Just. Put case that this night-cap 
be too little for my ears or forehead. Can any man tell 
me where my night-cap wrings me, except I be such an ass 
to proclaim it? 

White Devil I. 2 : Cam. Come, you know not where my 
night-cap wrings me. Flam. Wear it o' the old fashion ; 
let your large ears come throngh. [*] 

Mixed Passages. 
The following passages show umistakable traces of 
Dekker, and some possible suggestions of Webster also : 

(a) Westward Ho I. 1 : Wear their hats o'er their eye- 
brows like politic penthouses, which commonly make the 
shop of a mercer or a linen-draper as dark as a room in 
Bedlam. 

Dekker 's Peace is Broken, p. 137 : The mercers swore by 
their maidenhead that all their politic penthouses should be 
clothed in cloth of silver. 

Honest Whore II I. 3 : 

Not like a draper's shop with bold, dark shed. 
c2 



36 Chapter III 

Duchess of Malfi I. 1 : 

This darkening of your worth is not like that 
Which tradesmen use in the city; their false lights 
Are to rid bad wares off. 

(b) Westward Ho I. 1 : Name you any one thing that 
your citizen's wife comes short of to your lady : they have 
as pure linen, as choice painting, love green-goose in spring, 
mallard and teal in the fall, and woodcock in winter. 
Webster's Devil's Law Case I. 1 : 

Who is a woman of that state and bearing, 
Though she be city-born, both in her language, 
Her garments, and her table, she excels 
Our ladies of the court. 
Dekker's Gull's Hornbook, chap. 1 : And according to the 
time of year vary your fare; as capon is a stirring meat 
sometimes, oysters are a swelling meat sometimes, trout 
a tickling meat sometimes, green goose and woodcock 
a delicate meat sometimes. 

Honest Whore II III. 3 : We have poulterer's ware for 
your sweet bloods, as dove, chicken, duck, teal, woodcock, 
and so forth. 

Sun's Darling IV: Humor. 

Into the court of winter ; there thy food 
Shall not be sickly fruits, but healthful broths, 
Strong meat and dainty. 

Folly. Pork, beef, mutton, very sweet mutton, veal, 
venison, capon, fine, fat capon, partridge, snipe, plover, larks,' 
teal, admirable teal, my lord. 

Passages wholly from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho 1.1: How long will you hold out, think 
you? not so long as Ostend. 

Honest Whore I IV. 1 : Indeed, that is harder to come by 
than ever was Ostend. [*] 

(b) Westward Ho I. 1. Opportunity, which most of you 
long for (though you never be with child), opportunity. 

Roaring Girl II. 1 : Why, 'tis but for want of opportunity 






The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 37 

thou knowest. — I put her off with opportunity still ... I 
rail upon opportunity still and take no notice on't. 

(c) Westward Ho I. 1 : Just when women and vintners are 
a-conjuring, at midnight. 

Match Me in London I. 1 : 

The dawn of midnight and the drunkard's noon, 
No honest souls up now but vintners, midwives. 
Ill: 

Though they stand as low 
As vintners when they conjure. 

(d) Westward Ho I. 1 : You married me from the service 
of an honorable lady, and you know what matches I mought 
have had. What would you have me to do ? I would I 
had never seen your eyes, your eyes. 

Bachelor's Banquet, p. 165 : Now cursed be the day that 
ever I saw thy face, and a shame take them that first brought 
me acquainted with thee . . . Was ever woman of my degree 
and birth brought to this beggary ? Or any of my bringing 
up kept thus basely, and brought to this shame ? . . . Whereas 
I might have had twenty good marriages. 

Chap. 9, p. 239 : Here his wife begins again to thwart him, 
' Why, what would you have him do ? It is impossible for 
any one to please you. . . . What would you have ? ' 

Roaring Girl [underplot] II. 1 : Mis. O. ' Tis well known 
he took me from a lady's service, where I was well beloved 
of the steward. 

Conclusion. When we remember how much more 
the same number of equally good passages count 
from Webster than from Dekker, we see that Webster 
must have written by far the larger part of this scene, 
although both poets unquestionably had a hand in it. 
( These results agree with the results of the word-test, 
since the word-average of this scene is not high for 
Webster, but is far above Dekker's range. 



38 Chapter III 

Act I, Scene 2. 

(130 solid lines; word-average, .215) 

Passages from Webster. 

(a) Westward Ho I. 2 : Thou art fain to take all and pay all. 
Devil's Law Case III. 1 : 

And as your Dutch women in the Low Countries 
Take all and pay all. 

(b) Westward Ho I. 2 : In troth, for the shaking of the 
heart: I have here sometimes such a shaking, and down- 
wards such a kind of earth-quake, as it were. 

Appius and Virginia V. 2 : 

What do you call 
A burning fever ? is not that a devil ? 
It shakes me like an earthquake. [?] 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho I. 2: Mono- The Devil is in It, p. 315: 
poly. Let me see the bond, Let me, before I swear, on 
let me see when this money my notes look, I'll tell you the 
is to be paid : the tenth of very day . . . The day, August 
August, the first day that I 14 th. 

must tender this money, is the Rod for Runaways, p. 300: 
first of dog-days. A woman going along Barbic- 

an in the month of July, on 
a Wednesday, the first of the 
dog-days. 
Scrivener. I fear 'twill be Raven's Almanac. The 
hot staying for you in London Epistle [speaking to spend- 
then, thrift gallants] : Read you 

only the dogdays of this 
Almanac, for when the sun 
entereth into Leo, . . . you shall 
find it will be exceeding hot 
walking up and down Fleet 
Street or Holborne. 

(b) Westward Ho I. 2 : He will follow me when he thinks 
I have money, and pry into me as crows perch upon carrion. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 39 

The Peace is Broken, p. 119 : Young gentlemen that neither 
durst walk up and down the city, for fear of ravens and 
kites that hovered to catch them in their talons. 

Rod for Runaways, p. 301 : Albeit all fled from her when 
she lived, yet, being dead, some like ravens seized upon her 
body. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 257 : But ravens think carrion 
the daintiest meat. 

Conclusion. The word-average of this scene is .215, 
an average which would not absolutely prohibit 
a large share for Webster, but which would create 
a strong presumption that Dekker wrote most of it. 
The parallel passages are a little uncertain. If the 
first one frrom Webster is not a proverb, it is close ; 
but it sounds like a proverbial expression, and, if so, 
might be used by Dekker. The second parallel from 
Webster is not close, yet it has a certain likeness. 
On the whole, the passage-test seems to imply that 
both authors had a share in this scene, and that 
their relative parts are uncertain. 



Act II, Scene 1. 

(242 solid lines ; word-average, . 169). 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho II. 1 : If she be a right citizen's wife, 
now her husband has given her an inch, she'll take an ell, 
or a yard at least. 

Honest Whore II U. 2 : Remember you're a linen draper, 
and that if you give your wife a yard, she'll take an ell . . . 
For if you take a yard, I'll take an ell. [*] 

(b) Westward Ho II. 1 : I'm as limber as an ancient that 
has flourished in the rain, and as active as a Norfolk tumbler. 



40 Chapter III 

Raven's Almanac, p. 173. Yet are they of the nature of 
dogs and more nimble than Norfolk tumblers. 

(c) Westward Ho II. 1 : And que nouvelles ? what news 
nutters abroad ? Do jackdaws dung the top of Paul's steeple 
still? 

Satiro-mastix, p. 194: Come, what news, what news 
abroad? I have heard of the horses walking a' the top of 
Paul's. 

News from Hell, p. 131 : They will nutter about him, 
crying, " What news, what news ? " 

(d) Westward Ho II. 1 : [Speaks of Charing Cross as] 
The poor, wry-necked monument. 

Dead Term'. [London's answer to Westminster, speaks of 
Charing Cross as] That aged and reverend but wry-necked 
son of thine. 

(e) Westward Ho II. 1:1 had not thought, Master Paren- 
thesis, you had been such an early stirrer. 

Shoemaker's Hoi. II. 3 : O master, good-morrow ; y'are an 
early stirrer. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 189 : You are an early stirrer, Sir 
Quintilian Shorthose. 

(f) Westward Ho II. 1 : But we . . . must be up with the 
lark, because, like country attorneys, we are to shuffle up 
many matters in a forenoon. 

7 Deadly Sins, p. 51 : All are as busy as country attorneys 
at an assises. 

(g) Westward Ho II. 1 : Marry, because the suburbs, and 
those without the bars, have more privilege than they 
within the freedom. 

7 Deadly Sins, p. 27 : These [bankrupts, &c] are indeed 
(and none but these) the foreigners that live without the 
freedom of your city better than you within it. 

(h) Westward Ho II. 1 : Her double F of a good length, 
but that it straddles a little too wide. 

News from Hell, p. 94 : The master of perdition would 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 41 

by no means take them [lawyer's clerks] from their wide 
lines, and bursten bellied, straddling ff' s. 

(i) Westward Ho II. 1 : I am so troubled with the rheum, too. 
Honest Whore II II. 1 : I'm an old man, sir, and am 
troubled with a whoreson salt rheum. 

(j) Westward Ho II. 1 : Good Cole, tarry not past eleven. 
Honest Whore II IV. 1 : Say no more, old Coal. 
Satiro-mastix, p. 201 : Sayst thou me so, old Coal, come. 

(k) Westward Ho II. 1 : Just. Is he departed ? Is old 
Nestor marched into Troy ? M. Honey. Yes, you mad 
Greek, the gentleman's gone. 

Shoemaker's Hoi. II. 3 : Here, Hodge, here, Firk ; drink, 
you mad Greeks, and work like true Trojans. 

Fortunatus III. 2 : These English occupiers are mad 
Trojans. 

Shoemaker s Hoi. III. 5 : Now, my true Trojans, my fine Firk. 

(1) Westward Ho II. 1 : There's other irons in the fire ; 
more sacks are coming to the mill. 

Bellman of London, p. 152 [The Sacking Law.] : Sacks 
come to these mills every hour, but the sacking law 
empties them faster than a miller grinds his bushels of corn. 

(m) Westward Ho II. 1 : See what golden-winged bee 
from Hybla flies humming with crura thymo plena, which he 
will empty in the hive of your bosom. 

Whore of Babylon, p. 229 : 

Only to employ them 
As bees, whilst they have stings and bring thighs laden 
With honey, hive them. 

(n) Westward Ho II. 1 : Were I the properest, sweetest, 
plumpest, cherry-cheeked, coral lipped woman in a kingdom. 
Honest Whore I II. 1 : She is the prettiest, kindest, sweet- 
est, most bewitching honest ape under the pole. 
The Devil is in It, p. 332 : 

Will you have a dainty girl, here 'tis; 
Coral lips, teeth of pearl, here 'tis; 
Cherry cheeks, softest flesh, that's she. 



42 Chapter III 

(o) Westward Ho II. 1 : Were I a poet, by Hippocrene I 
swear (which was a certain well where all the muses watered), 
and by Parnassus eke I swear, I would rhyme you to death 
with praises. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 263 : By Apollo, Helicon, the Muses, (who 
march three and three in a rank) and by all that belongs 
to Parnassus, I swear all this. 

(p) Westward Ho II. 1 : Men and women are born and 
come running into the world faster than coaches do into 
Cheapside upon Simon and Jude's day. 

Ravens Almanac [Autumn] : Upon the very next day 
after Simon and Jude, the warlike drum and fife shall be 
heard in the very midst of Cheapside, at the noise whereof 
the people like madmen shall throng together, and run up 
and down. 

The Devil is in It, p. 268 : 
Were you good hell-hounds, every day should be 
A Simon and Jude, to crown our board with feasts 
Of black-eyed souls each miuute ; were you honest devils 
Each officer in hell should have at least 
A brace of whores to his breakfast . . . 
Omnes. We'll fill thy palace with them. 

(q) Westward Ho II. 1 : This world is like a mint . . . the 
old cracked King Harry groats are shovelled up, feel bruising 
and battering, chipping and melting, — they smoke for't. 

The Devil is in It, p. 298 : Bar. Do not your gallants 
come off roundly then ? Bra. Yes sir, their hair comes off 
fast enough, we turn away crack't French crowns every day. 

(r) Westward Ho II. 1 : The new money, like a new drab, 
is catched at by Dutch, Spanish, Welsh, French, Scotch, 
and English. 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : 

A harlot is like Dunkirk, true to none, 
Swallows both English, Spanish, fulsome Dutch, 
Back-doored Italian, last of all, the French. 



The Parallel- Passage Test — Westward Ho 43 

Roaring Girl V. 1 : More countries to you than the Dutch, 
Spanish, French, or English ever found out. 

Honest Whore III. 1 : There's a saying when they commend 
nations. It goes, the Irishman for his hand, the Welshman 
for a leg, the Englishman for a face, the Dutchman for a 
beard . . . The Spaniard, — let me see, — for a little foot, 
I take it; the Frenchman, — what a pox hath he? and so 
of the rest. 

Peace is Broken, p. 103 : They were more scattered than 
the Jews and more hated, more beggarly than the Irish 
and more uncivil, more hardy than the Switzers, and more 
brutish, given to drink more than the Dutch, to pride more 
than the French, to irreligion more than the Italian. 

Match Me in London III. p. 180 : 
I do speak English 
When I'd move pity, when dissemble, Irish, 
Dutch when I reel, and though I feed on scalions 
If I should brag gentility I'd gabble Welsh, 
If I betray I'm French, if full of braves, 
They swell in lofty Spanish, in neat Italian 
I court my wench. 

(s) Westward Ho II. 1 : Why, even now . . . some are 
murdering, some lying with their maids, some picking of 
pockets, some cutting purses, some cheating, some weighing 
out bribes ; in this city some wives are cuckolding some 
husbands; in yonder village some farmers are now — now 
grinding the jawbones of the poor. 

Dead Term [Westminster's complaint to London] : More 
maidenheads, I verily believe, are cut off upon my own 
featherbeds in one year than are heads of cattle cut off in 
two amongst the butchers that serve my families. . . . Other 
sins lie gnawing like diseases at my heart, for Pride sits at 
the doors of the rich : Envy goes up and down with the 
beggar, feeding upon snakes : rents are laid upon the rack 
even [in] my own sight and by my own children that I have 
borne, whilst Conscience goes like a fool in pied colors . . . 
Covetousness hath got a hundred hands, and all those hands 



44 Chapter III 

do nothing but tie knots on her purse-strings ; but Prodigality 
having but two hands, undoes those knots faster than the 
other can tie them. 

The Devil is in It, p. 268 : 

Pluto. Is not the world as 't was ? 

Once mother of rapes, incests, and sodomies, 
Atheism and blasphemies, plump boys indeed, 
That sucked our dam's breast, is she now barren ? Ha ! 
Is there a dearth of villanies ? 
Omnes. More now than ever. 
Pluto. Is there such penury of mankind hell-hounds, 

You can lie snoring? 
Buff. Each land is full of rake-hells. 

(t) Westward Ho II. 1 : A rare schoolmaster for all kinds 
of hands, I. 

News from Hell, p. 94 : Whither then marches Mon. Male- 
fico ? Marry, to all the writing schoolmasters of the town. 
He took them by the fists and liked their hands exceedingly 
(for some of them had ten or twelve several hands, and 
could counterfeit anything.) 

(u) Westward Ho II. 1 : 

Well, if, as ivy 'bout the elm does twine, 

All wives love clipping, there's no fault in mine. 

Batchelors Banquet, p. 264 : Even so an old woman, having 
gotten a young man, will cling to him, like an ivy to an elm. [*] 

(v) Westward Ho II. 1 : Even now must you and I hatch 
an egg of iniquity. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 267 : She is the cockatrice 
that hatcheth all these eggs of evils. 



Act II, Scene 2. 

(270 solid lines ; word-average, . 148). 

Passages from Webster. 

The only possible parallel passage for this scene which 

I have been able to find in Webster is the following : 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 45 

Westward Ho II. 1 : 

I wonder lust can hang at such white hairs. 

White Devil IV. 1 : 

Where my love and care 
Shall hang your wishes in my silver hair. 

There are, however, three objections to accepting 
this as Webster's. In the first place, there are two 
or three passages in Dekker which bear a slight, 
though rather shadowy likeness : 
Honest Whore I V. 2 : 

And happiness shall crown your silver hairs. 
Satiro-mastix, p. 228 : 

And rorid clouds, being sucked into the air, 
When down they melt, hangs like fine silver hair. 

In the second place, there are metrical objections 
against giving this speech to Webster. The line in 
question forms a whole speech in itself, and rimes 
with the last line of the preceding speech. Rime be- 
tween speeches is very rare in Webster, and very 
common in Dekker. 

In the third place, a single unsupported passage 
like this is always liable to be the result of mere 
chance, unless it is long or very close, and this is 
neither. So, on the whole, this certainly seems very 
slight evidence, when balanced with what can be 
accumulated on the other side. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho II. 2 [first line of scene] : Her answer, 
talk in music ; will she come ? 

Honest Whore I I. 2 [first line of scene] : How now, 
porter, will she come? 

(b) Westward Ho II. 2 : Had it not been for a friend in 
a corner [takes aqua-vitas], I had kicked up my heels. 



46 Chapter HI 

Bachelor's Banquet, chap. X, p. 242 : Meanwhile, she hath 
a sweetheart in a corner. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 234: For this man at arms has paper 
in's belly, or some friend in a corner, or else he durst not 
be so crank. 

Shoemaker's Holiday III. 3 : I will have some odd thing 
or other in a corner for you; I will not be your back 
friend. 

(c) Westward Ho II. 2 : The jealous wittol, her husband, 
came, like a mad ox, bellowing in while I was there. 

Match Me. IV: 

Tormiella's husband, 
The mad ox broken loose. 
Honest Whore II. 1 : If ... he [Hippolito] should get 
loose again and like a mad ox toss my new black cloaks 
into the kennel. 

(d) Westward Ho II. 2 : I'll make the yellow-hammer her 
husband know that there's a difference between a cogging 
bawd and an honest, motherly gentlewoman. 

Honest Whore II V. 2 : O, Mistress Cathrine, you do me 
wrong to accuse me here as you do, before the right wor- 
shipful. I am known for a motherly, honest woman, and 
no bawd. 1 

(e) Westward Ho II. 2 : A woman when there be roses 
in her cheeks, cherries on her lips, civet in her breath, 
ivory in her teeth, lilies in her hand, and liquorice in 
her heart. 

The Devil is in It, p. 332 : 

Will you have a dainty girl, here 'tis; 
Coral lips, teeth of pearl, here 'tis ; 
Cherry cheeks, softest flesh, that's she. 

(f ) Westward Ho II. 2 : The whiting-mop has nibbled. 
Honest Whore II III. 3 : She nibbled, but would not 

swallow the hook. 

1 Pointed out by Mr. Stoll. 



The Parallel- Passage Test — Westward Ho £7 

Whore of Babylon, p. 234 : 

Though you bait hooks with gold, 
Ten thousand may be nibbling. 
The Peace is Broken, p. 120: If fat widows can be but 
drawn to nibble at that worshipful bait. 

Roaring Girl II. 1 : Heart, I would give but too much 
money to be nibbling with that wench. 

(g) Westward Ho II. 2 : 

This shower shall fill them all; rain in their laps 
What golden drops thou wilt. 
Fortunatus III. 1 : 

Unless he melt himself to liquid gold, 
Or be some god, some devil, or can transport 
A mint about him by enchanted power, 
He cannot rain such showers. 
Wonder of a Kingdom III. p. 256 : 
Who bravely pours 
But into a wench's lap his golden showers, 
May be Jove's equal. 

Match Me in London II. p. 164 : 

The God of gold pour down on both your heads 
His comfortable showers. 1 

1 Compare also the following from Webster : 
Duchess of Malfi II. 2 : If we have the same golden showers 
that rained in the time of Jupiter the thunderer, you have the 
same Danaes still, to hold up their laps to receive them. 
Duchess of Malfi I, 1 : 
Ferd. There's gold. 
Bosola. So : 

What follows ? never rained such showers as these 
Without thunderbolts i' the tail of them. 
As the passage from Fortunatus was written before Westward Ho, 
and the Duchess of Malfi long after, it seems probable that Dekker 
wrote the passage in Westward Ho, and that the passages in the 
Duchess of Malfi are a trace of Dekker's influence on his younger, 
or at least, less experienced associate. It seems hardly probable 
that passages so close and numerous should be wholly due to 
chance, even allowing for the story of Danae. 



48 Chapter HI 

(h) Westward Ho II. 2 : O, she looks so sugaredly, so 
simperingly, so gingerly, so amorously, so amiably ! Such 
a red lip, such a white forehead, such a black eye, such a 
full cheek, and such a goodly little nose. 

Match Me in London I : Delicate, piercing eye, enchanting 
voice, lip red and moist, skin soft and white ; she's amorous, 
delicious, inciferous, tender, neat. 

(i) Westward Ho II. 2 : You shall not find him a Templar, 
nor one of these cogging Catherine-pear-colored beards. 

Honest Whore I V. 2 : My eldest son had a polt-foot, 
crooked legs, a verjuice face, and a pear-colored beard. 

(j) Westward Ho II. 2 : I think you'll find the sweetest, 
sweetest bedfellow of her. 

Wonder of a Kingdom II : If Death do take her, he shall 
have the sweetest bedfellow that ever lay by lean man's side. 

Honest Whore I III. 2 : There's the finest, neatest gentleman 
at my house. . . . There's the sweetest, properest, gallantest 
gentleman at my house. 

Honest Whore II 1.1: Our country buona-robas, oh ! are 
the sugarest, delicious rogues. 

(k) Westward Ho II. 2 : You shall see, I'll fetch her with 
a wet finger. 

Honest Whore I 1.2: If ever I stand in need of a wench 
that will come with a wet finger. 

Honest Whore I V. 1 : 

For she'll pump water from her eyes 
With a wet finger. [*] 

(1) Westward Ho II. 2 : Now the marks are set up, I'll get 
me twelve score off and give aim. 

7 Deadly Sins [Induction] : The English, the Dutch, and 
the Spanish stood aloof and gave aim, whilst thou [France] 
shotst arrows upright. [?] 

(m) Westward Ho II. 2 : 

I have already leaped beyond the bounds 
Of modesty, in piecing out my wings 
With borrowed feathers. 



The Parallel- Passage Test — Westward Ho 49 

Whore of Babylon, p. 235 : 
The wings from home that brought me had sick feathers. 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : 

Husband, I plucked, 
When he had tempted me to think well of him, 
Gilt feathers from thy wings, to make him fly 
More lofty, 
(n) Westward Ho II. 2 : 

And henceforth cease to throw out golden hooks 
To choke mine honour. 
Witch of Edmonton IV. 1 : 

Dare any swear I ever tempted maiden 
With golden hooks flung at her chastity. 1 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : 

And then a fourth 
Should have this golden hook, and lascivious bait, 
Thrown out to the full length. 
Fortunatus I. 2 : 

This strumpet World ; for her most beauteous looks 
Are poisoned baits hung upon golden hooks. 
Wonder of a Kingdom I: Bait a hook with gold and 

with it 

Whore of Babylon, p. 217: 

Such swelling spirits hid with humble looks, 
Are kingdoms' poisons hung on golden hooks. 
Roaring Girl III. 1 : 
Moll. Such hungry things as these may soon be took 
With a worm fastened on a golden hook. 1 

(o) Westward Ho II. 2 : 

Though my husband 's poor, 
I'll rather beg for him than be your whore. 
Shoemaker's Holiday IV. 1 : 

Whilst he lives, his I live, be it ne'er so poor, 
And rather be his wife than a king's whore. 

1 These also throw some light on Dekker's part in The Witch 
of Edmonton and The Roaring Girl. 

d 



50 Chapter III 

Honest Whore II H. 1 : 

He loved me; being now poor, 
I'll beg for him, and no wife can do more. 
Match Me in London II: 

What violent hands 
Soever force me, ne'er shall touch woman more, 
I'll kill ten monarchs ere I'll be one's whore. 
Ill: 

I will not be your whore to wear your crown, 
Nor call any king my husband but mine own. 

(p) Westward Ho II. 2 : 

Thou art a very bawd, thou art a devil 
Cast in a reverend shape, thou stale damnation. 
Honest Whore /III. 2 : 

Hence, thou, our sex's monster, poisonous bawd, 
Lust's factor, and damnation's orator. 
IJL 1: 
Why, those that love you, hate you, and will term you 
Liquorish damnation. 

(q) Westward Ho II. 2 : Is not old wine wholesomest, old 
pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash 
whitest ? [*] 

(1) Compare for the use of superlatives : 

Honest Whore I III. 2 : There's the sweetest, properest, 
gallantest gentleman at my house. 

(2) Compare for the fourfold, balanced form of the 
sentence : 

The Peace is Broken, p. 97 : To walk every day into the 
fields is wearisome; to drink up the day and night in 
a tavern loathsome; to be ever riding upon the beast with 
two heads (Lechery) most damnable, and yet to be ever 
idle is detestable. 

(r) Westward Ho II. 2 : If new, very good company ; but 
if stale, like old Jeronimo, go by, go by. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 51 

Shoemaker's Holiday II. 1 : But if I were as you, I'd cry : 

Go by, Jeronimo, go by. 
Satiro-mastix, p. 202 : Go by, Jeronimo, go by ; and here 
drop the 10 shillings. [*] 

(s) Westward Ho II. 2 : I see that, as Frenchmen love to 
be bold, Flemings to be drunk, Welshmen to be called 
Britons, and Irishmen to be costermongers, so cockneys, 
especially she-cockneys love not aqua-vitce when 'tis good 
for them. 

[For parallel passages see Westward Ho, II. 1 (r)]. 

(t) Westward Ho II. 2 : Mrs. Just. Witch, thus I break 
thy spells. 

Wonder of a Kingdom II : 
Tibaldo. Against your charms, 

Witch, thus I stop mine ears. 

(u) Westward Ho II. 2 : Birdlime. Here's a letter to your 
worship from the party. Monopoly. What party ? Bird. The 
Tenterhook, your wanton. 

Wonder of a Kingdom IV : Gentili. What next ? Ser- 
vant. The party, sir. Gentili. What party, sir? 

(v) Westward Ho II. 2 : Birdlime. But shall not the party 
be there ? Monopoly. Which party ? Birdlime. The writer 
of that simple hand. 

[Compare with (u) above], 
(w) Westward Ho II. 2 : From her ! phew ! pray thee, 
stretch me no more upon your Tenterhook. 

Honest Whore II IV. 2 : To make a piece of English cloth 
of him, and to stretch him on the tenters, till the threads of 
his own natural humor crack. 
Satiro-mastix, p. 246 : 

Oh Night, that dyes the firmament in black, 
And like a cloth of clouds dost stretch thy limbs 
Upon the windy tenters of the air. 
Match Me in London III: 

My urinalist . . . left no artery 
Unstretcht upon the tenters. 

da 



52 Chapter HI 

Act II, Scene 3. 

(129 solid lines; word-average, .155). 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho II. 3 : Wine in the must, good Dutch- 
man, for must is best for us women. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 247 : Must is a king, and I must go. 
Patient Grisill, p. 194: I must, must is for kings. [?] 

(b) Westward Ho II. 3 : An honest butter-box. 
Shoemaker's Holiday II. 3 : We have not men enow, but 

we must entertain every butter-box. 

III. 1 : Firk. They may well be called butterboxes when 
they drink fat veal and thick beer too. 

News from Hell, p. 145 : Those butterboxes, says Charon, 
[of the souls of two Dutchmen] owe me a penny. 

(c) Westward Ho II. 3 : Hans. Yaw, yaw, you sail hebben 
it, mester. 

Shoemaker's Holiday II. 3 : Lacy [as Hans]. Yaw, yaw, ik bin 
den shomawker .... Yaw, yaw ; be niet vorveard . . . Yaw, 
yaw, yaw; ik can dat wel doen. 

(d) Westward Ho II. 3 : Bun, bun, bun, bun. 
Honest Whore I II. 1 : Down, down, down, down [?] 

(e) Westward Ho II. 3 : For he feeds thee with nothing 
but court holy-bread, good words, and cares not for thee. 

Match Me in London III : 
For you must think that all that bow, stand bare 
And give court cake-bread to you, love you not. 

(f ) Westward Ho II. 3 : Wo-ho, ho, ho, so-ho, boys. 
Match Me in London I : Wo, ho, ho, ho, — whew. 
Foriunatus I. 1 : So, ho, ho, ho, ho. 

The Devil is in It, p. 811 : So, ho, ho, father subprior. 

(g) Westward Ho II. 3 : Who would not be scratched with 
the briers and brambles to have such burrs sticking on his 
breeches ? 

Whore of Babylon, p. 222 : This burr still hangs on me. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 53 

Wonder of Kingdom II : But no point can peek out le 
remedie for de madam in de briers of love. 1 [?] 

(h) Westward Ho II. 3 : Oh Lord, oh gentlemen, knights, 
ladies that may be, citizens' wives that are, shift for your- 
selves, for a pair of your husbands' heads are knocking 
together with Hans his, and inquiring for you. 

Shoemaker s Holiday IV. 4 : Oh God, what will you do, 
mistress? Shift for yourself, your father is at hand. [?] 

(i) Westward Ho II. 3 : Sirrah, Wafer, thy child 's at nurse : 
— if you that are the men could provide some wise ass 
that could keep his countenance; one that could set out 
his tale with audacity, and say that the child were sick, 
and ne'er stagger at it; that last should serve all our feet. 

Bachelor's Banquet, chap. 8 : After this agreement, home 
she comes with a heavy countenance : the good man asketh 
what she aileth. Marry, quoth she, the child is very ill at 
ease (though he was never in better health since he was 
born), his flesh burns as though it were fire; and, as the 
nurse tells me, he hath refused the dug these two days, 
although she durst not say so much till now. 

Roaring Girl III. 2 : [Gallipot to his wife] Is not thy child 
at nurse fallen sick or dead ? 



Act III, Scene 1. 

(52 solid lines ; word average, . 250) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 
(a) Westward Ho III. 1 : Mrs. Tenterhook. No, lamb. 
[Exit Tenterhook.] Baa, sheep. 

1 Compare also the following from Webster : 
White Devil V. 1 : 

Women are like to burrs, 
Where their affection throws them, there they'll stick. 

The Whore of Baby/on was almost certainly written before the 
White Devil \ and, on the whole, Dekker's claim seems stronger. 
If this likeness is more than mere chance, it may be a trace of 
Dekker's literary influence on his younger companion. 



54 Chapter III 

Honest Whore IV. 2: Mat. Yes, lamb. Bell. Baa, lamb. 1 

(b) Westward Ho III. 1 : Well, my husband is gone to 
arrest Monopoly ; I have dealt with a sergeant privately, to 
entreat him, pretending that he is my aunt's son : by this 
means shall I see my young gallant that in this has played 
his part. When they owe money in the city once, they 
deal with their lawyers by attorney, follow the court, though 
the court do them not the grace to allow them their diet. 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : Then deal they [our gallants] under- 
hand with us ; ... and we must swear they are our cousins, 
and able to do us a pleasure at court. 



Act III, Scene 2. 
(112 solid lines; word-average, .234). 

Passage from Webster. 

Westward Ho III. 2 : Mon. Thou hast backed many a man 
in thy time, I warrant. Amb. I have had many a man by 
the back, sir. 

Appius and Virginia III. 2 : 1st Lict. We back knights 
and gentlemen daily. 2nd. Lict. Right, we have them by 
the back hourly. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho III. 2 : Amb. Phew, I have been a broker 
already; for I was first a Puritan, then a bankrupt, then 
a broker, then a fencer, and then sergeant: were not these 
trades would make a man honest? » 

Patient Grissil III. \ : Babulo. At first I was a fool, for 
I was born an innocent; then I was a traveler, and then 
a basketmaker, and then a courtier, and now I must turn 
basketmaker and fool again. 

(b) Westward Ho III. 2 : Now were I in an excellent 
humor to go to a vaulting house : I would break down all 
their glass windows, hew in pieces all their joint-stools, tear 

1 Pointed out by Stoll. 



The Parallel- Passage Test — Westward Ho 55 

their silk petticoats, ruffle their periwigs, and spoil their 
painting. 

Patient Grissil IV. 3 : [Gwenthyan to Sir Owen] No, our 
lord is mad: you tear her ruffs and repatoes and pridle 
her: is her pridled now? is her repatoed now? is her tear 
in pieces now? 

(c) Westward Ho III. 2 ; As you are a gentleman, lend 
me forty shillings : let me not live if I do not pay you the 
forfeiture of the whole bond, and never plead conscience. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 256 : Make me, sir, so much 
beholden to your love as to lend me forty or fifty shillings 
to bear myself and my horse to London; from whence 
within a day or two, I shall send you many thanks with 
a faithful repayment of your courtesy. 

Honest Whore 1 1. 2 : Marry, I must entreat you to lend 
me some thirty or forty till the ship come : by this hand, 
I'll discharge at my day, by this hand. 

(d) Westward Ho III. 2 : You shall have my sword and 
hangers to pay him. 

Honest Whore II IV. 1 : An excellent gilt rapier . . . 
I could feast ten good fellows with these hangers. [?] 

Act III, Scene 3. 
(132 solid lines; word-average, .333). 

Passages from Webster. 

(a) Westward Ho III. 3 : The commonest sinner had more 
fluttering about her than a fresh punk hath when she comes 
to a town of garrison or to a university. 

Duchess of Malfi II. 5 : 

She hath had more cunning bawds to serve her turn, 
And more secure conveyances for lust 
Than towns of garrison for service. 

(b) Westward Ho III. 3 : There is a great strife between 
beauty and chastity ; and that which pleaseth many is never 
free from temptation. 



56 Chapter HI 

White Devil III. 1 : 

Grant I was tempted : 
Temptation to lust proves not the act: 
Casta est quam nemo rogavit. [?] 

(c) Westward Ho III. 3: Duchess of Malfi I. 1: 
Why, your Italians in general, Blackbirds fatten best in hard 
are so burnt with these dog- weather; why not I in these 
days, that your great lady dog-days? 

there thinks her husband loves White Devil II. 1 : My jcal- 
her not, if he be not jealous, ousy ! I am yet to learn what 

that Italian means. 

Cure for a Cuckold V. 1 : 

Are you returned 
With the Italian plague upon 
you, jealousy? 

(d) Westward Ho in. 3 : What an idle coxcomb jealousy 
will make a man ... As for jealousy, it makes many 
cuckolds, many fools, and many bankrupts; it may have 
abused me, and not my wife's honesty; I'll try it. 

White Devil I. 2 : It seems you would be a fine capricious 
mathematically jealous coxcomb ; . . . they that have the 
yellow jaundice think all objects that they look on to be 
yellow. Jealousy is worser; her fits present to a man, like 
so many bubbles in a bason of water, twenty several 
crabbed faces; many times makes his shadow his cuckold- 
maker . . . This is all ; be wise, I will make you friends. 

White Devil II. 1 : 

Now, by my birth, you are a foolish, mad, 
And jealous woman. 

Note. The two following passages are given, not 
for particular phrases, but for general style, and not 
as proof, but as refutation. Too many people think 
that the mere mention of a Dutchman, or a list of 
low-life characters, proves Dekker's authorship. 

(e) Westward Ho III. 3 : Captains, scholars, servingmen, 
jurors, clerks, townsmen, and the black guard used all one 
ordinary. 



The Parallel- Passage Test — Westward Ho 57 

White Devil II. 2 : 

But what a piteous cry there straight arose 
Amongst smiths and feltmakers, brewers and cooks, 
Reapers and butterwomen, amongst fishmongers, 
And thousand other trades [?] 

(1) Westward Ho III. 3 : Looking as pitifully as Dutchmen 
first made drunk. 

Appius and Virginia IV. 2 : 

Though we dine to-day 
As Dutchmen feed their soldiers. 
White Devil III. 1 : 

An unbidden guest 
Should travel as Dutchwomen go to church. 
Devil's Law Case HI. 1 : And as your Dutchwomen in 
the Low Countries [?] 

Passage from Dekker. 

Westward Ho III. 3 : You shall not hit me in the teeth 
that I was your hindrance. 

Bachelor s Banquet, p. 158 : Jesus God, saith she, when you 
have nothing else to hit in the teeth withal, ye twit me 
with the tenement. 

Roaring Girl IV, 2 : Presently I hit him in the teeth 
with the Three Pigeons. 

Satiro-Mastix, p. 196: One hit me in the teeth that the 
greatest clerks are not the wisest men. 

Patient Grissil III. 1 : He shall never hit us in the teeth 
with turning us, for 'tis not a good turn. 1 

Virgin Martyr 11. 1 : The . . . page hit me in the teeth with it. 1 

Conclusion. It seems clear that both writers had a 
hand in this scene, and also that Webster had the 
larger part. It should be noticed that the one parallel 
from Dekker comes in the short dialogue of the 
Wafers, during which Justiniano is almost wholly silent. 
Now compare this fact with the word-test for this scene : 

1 The last two parallels were pointed out by Bangs, Eng. Stud., 
Vol. 28. 



58 Chapter HI 

Westward Ho III. 3. Solid lines. Words. Average. 
Boy 5 2 

Justiniano 106 38 .358 

Wafer 6 1 .166 

Mrs. Wafer 15 3 .200 

Of course, the word-test here did not prove that 
Dekker wrote the dialogue of the Wafers; for the 
word-test becomes unreliable when applied to such 
small units ; but it agrees beautifully with such 
a theory when indicated by another test. 



Act III, Scene 4. 
(65 solid lines; word-average, .215) 

No Passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho III. 4 : Come, because I kept from town 
a little, — let me not live if I did not hear the sickness 
was in town very hot. 

Rod for Runaways, p. 289 : He, being determined to retire 
into the country, sent for some of the better sort of his 
neighbours, asked their good wills to leave them, and because 
(the poison of the pestilence so hotly reigning) he knew 
not whether they and he should ever meet again. 

p. 297 : The heat of contagion frights them from returning, 
and it were a shame, they think, to come so soon back to 
that city. 

(b) Westward Ho III. 4 : Because women's tongues are 
like to clocks; if they go too fast, they never go true. 

News from Hell, p. 106 : But their wits, like wheels in 
Brunswick clocks, being all wound up, so far as they could 
stretch, were all going, but not one going truly. 

Honest Whore II III. 1 : Inf. Mine [watch] goes by 
heaven's dial, the sun, and it goes true. 

Hip. I think, indeed, mine runs somewhat too fast. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Westward Ho 59 

Act IV, Scene 1. 

(242 solid lines ; word-average, . 169) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho IV. 1 : Birdlime. God send me deuces 
and aces with a court-card, and I shall get by it. Honey- 
suckle. That can make thee nothing. Birdlime. Yes, if 
I have a coat-card turn up. 

Match Me in London IV : I did but shuffle the first dealing ; 
you cut last and dealt last; by the same token you turned 
up a court-card. 

(b) Westward Ho IV. 1 : What, more sacks to the mill ! 
I'll to my old retirement. 

Bellman of London, p. 152 [The Sacking Law]: Sacks 
come to these mills every hour. 

(c) Westward Ho IV. 1 : You went to a butcher's feast 
at Cuckold's Haven the next day after St. Luke's day. 

Match Me I : If she should drive you by foul weather 
into Cuckold's Haven before St. Luke's day comes. 

News from Hell, p. 98 : May you sail sooner thither than 
a married man can upon St. Luke's day to Cuckold's Haven. 

Raven's Almanac [Winter] : And sithence upon St. Luke's 
day, bitter storms of wind and hail are likely to happen 
about Cuckold's Haven. 

(d) Westward Ho IV. 1 : Loves, well, would you knew 
what I know ! then you would say somewhat. In good 
faith, she's very poor : all her gowns are at pawn ; she owes 
me five pound for her diet, besides forty shillings I lent her 
to redeem two half- silk kirtles from the broker's : and do 
you think she would be in debt thus, if she thought not of 
somebody ? 

Honest Whore I III. 1 : I would thou wouldst give me 
five yards of lawn, to make my punk some falling bands 



60 Chapter III 

a' the fashion; three falling one upon another, for that's 
the new edition now : she's out of linen horribly, too ; troth, 
sh'as never a good smock to her back neither, but one that 
has a great many patches in't. 

(e) Westward Ho IV. 1 : Birdlime. Say that you were 
a country gentleman, or a citizen that hath a young wife, 
or an Inn of Chancery man, should I tell you? pardon me. 

Gull's Hornbook, chap. 7 : Whether he be a country 
gentleman that brings his wife up to learn the fashion, see 
the tombs at Westminster, the lions in the Tower, or to 
take physic; or else some young farmer, who many times 
makes his wife in the country believe he hath suits in law 
because he will come up to his lechery. 



Act IV, Scene 2. 

(202 solid lines : word-average, . 149). 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho IV. 2 [Opening lines of scene] : 
Earl. Have you perfumed the chamber? 
Omnes. Yes, my lord. 

Wonder of a Kingdom III [Opening lines of scene] : 
Torrenti. This room smells. 1st Gallant. It has been 
new perfumed. 

(b) Westward Ho IV. 2 : 

Go, let music 
Charm with her excellent voice an awful silence 
Through all this building, that her sphery soul 
May, on the wings of air, in thousand forms 
Invisibly fly, yet be enjoyed. 

Fortunatus I. 1 : 

Take instruments, 
And let the raptures of choice harmony, 
Thorough the hollow windings of his ear, 
Carry their sacred sound, and wake each sense, 
To stand amazed at our bright eminence. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 61 

The Peace is Broken, p. 125 : When music went into her 
ear in ten thousand several shapes. 

(e) Westward Ho IV. 2 : 1st Serv. Does my lord mean 
to conjure, that he draws these strange characters? 
2st Serv. He does ; but we shall see neither the spirit that 
rises, nor the circle it rises in. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 262 : If any passenger come 
by, and, wondering to see such a conjuring circle kept by 
hellhounds, demand what spirits they raise there . . . 

Whore of Babylon, p. 242 : It's the maddest circle to 
conjure in that ever raised spirit. 

Match Me in London IV : 

Look all, bind fast this devil, is there no circle 
To be damned in but mine ? 

Ibid. V: Wilt thou help me to a fit circle to play the 
devil in? [*] 

(d) Westward Ho IV. 2 : By scorching her with the hot 
stream of lust. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 100 : I left swimming in those 
common sensual streams, wherein the world hath been so 
often in danger of being drowned. 

(e) Westward Ho IV. 2 : Hard was the siege which you 
laid to the crystal walls of my chastity, but I held out, you 
know. 

Honest Whore II IV. 1 : 

I'll try 
If now I can beat down this chastity 
With the same ordnance; will you yield this fort? 
Wonder of a Kingdom I : Her walls of chastity cannot be 
beaten down. 

Wonder of a Kingdom II : As for my old huckster's artillery, 
I have walls of chastity strong enough, shoot he never so 
hard. 

(f) Westward Ho IV. 2 : 

I begged that she would die; my suit was granted; 
I poisoned her ; thy lust there strikes her dead. 



62 Chapter HI 

Satiro-mastix, p. 252 : 

Ask the king that; he was the cause, not I. 
Let it suffice, she's dead, she kept her vow. 

(g) Westward Ho IV. 2 : But to pare off these brims [horns]. 
Fortunatus V. 1 : Thrice have we pared them off. 
Honest Whore II I. 3 : The seaman has his cap, pared 
without brim. 

(h) Westward Ho IV. 2 : 

Mirror of dames, I look upon thee now, 

As men long blind, having recover'd sight, 

Amazed, scarce able to endure the light. 

Mine own shame strikes me dumb : henceforth the book 

I'll read shall be thy mind and not thy look. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 255 : 

Do not confound me quite; for mine own guilt 

Speaks more within me than thy tongue contains; 

Thy sorrow is my shame: yet herein springs 

Joy out of sorrow, boldness out of shame ; 

For I by this have found, once in my life, 

A faithful subject, thou a constant wife. 

. . . Mirror of maidens, wonder of thy name. 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : Mine own shame me confounds. 

Whore of Babylon, p. 264 : 

Mirror of women, 
I open now my breast even to the heart. 

(i) Westward Ho IV. 2 : The Honest Whore I IV. 1 : In- 
book of the siege of Ostend, deed, that's harder to come 
written by one that dropped by than ever was Ostend. 
in the action, will never sell Satiro-mastix, p. 218: Hark, 
so well as a report of the hither> Susannaj beware of 
siege between this grave, this these tWQ wicked elders 
wicked elder and thyself. 

(j) Westward Ho IV. 2 : The moon's up : 'fore Don Phoebus, 
I doubt we shall have a frost this night, her horns are 
so sharp. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Westward Ho 63 

The Devil is in It, p. 310 : Look you, because the moon 
is up and makes horns at one of us. 
Match Me in London I : 

Do you see this change in the moon? Sharp horns 
Do threaten windy weather. 



Act V, Scene 1. 

(270 solid lines; word-average, .200) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

Westward Ho V. 1 : And then he sets out a throat and 
swore again like a stinking-breathed knight as he was, that 
women were like horses . . . They'd break over any hedge 
to change their pasture, though it were worse. 

Dead Term [London's answer] : Such is the quality of 
Smithfield nags, such is the property of suburb courtesans. 
In brief, their beginning is bravery, their end beggary, their 
life is detestable, and death, for the most part, damnable. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 109 : If they were taken wandering, 
like sheep broken out of lean pastures into fat, out of their 
own liberties. 

(b) Westward Ho V. 1 : I know what one of 'em buzzed 
in mine ear, till, like a thief in a candle, he made mine 
ears burn. 

Match Me in London I : 

Before he came, you buzzed into mine ear 
Tunes that did sound but scurvily. 
Bachelors Banquet, chap. 12, p. 256: About some odd 
errand which she will buzz in his ears. 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : Some slave has buzzed this into her, 
has he not? [*] 

(c) Westward Ho V. 1 : I know as verily they hope and 
brag to one another, that this night they'll row westward 
in our husbands' wherries. 



64 Chapter III 

Wonder of a Kingdom I: Thou knowest the Donna 
Alphonsina ... is 't not a galley for the great Turk to be 
rowed in? 

Honest Whore I V. 2 : 

Must I sail in your fly-boat, 
Because I helped to rear your main-mast first? 
[All three passages used in the same metaphorical sense.] 

(d) Westward Ho V. 1 : Be as wanton as new-married 
wives, as fantastic and light-headed to the eye as feather- 
makers, but as pure about the heart as if we dwelt amongst 
'em in Blackfriars. 

Seven Deadly Sins [V, Apishness] : He's a fierce, dapper 
fellow, more light-headed than a musician; as fantastically 
attired as a court jester; wanton in discourse; lascivious in 
behaviour; jocund in good company; nice in his trencher; 
and yet he feeds very hungerly on scraps of songs. [?] 

(e) Westward Ho V. 2 : [To be compared with the above] 
Oh yes; eat with 'em as hungerly as soldiers; drink as if 
we were froes; talk as freely as jesters; but do as little as 
misers, who, like dry nurses, have great breasts but give 
no milk. [?] 

(f ) Westward Ho V. 1 : That he who shall miss his hen, 
if he be a right cock indeed, will watch the other from 
treading. 

Honest Whore II V. 2 : This is the hen, my lord, that 
the cock with the lordly comb, your son-in-law, would 
crow over, and tread. 

Roaring Girl III. 2 : ' T is one of Hercules ' labours to tread 
one of these city hens, because their cocks are still crowing 
over them. 

(g) Westward Ho V. 1 : 111, ill, ill, ill, ill. 

Fortunatus V. 1 : Fie, fie, fie, fie, . . . vel, vel, vel, 
vel, vel. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Westward Ho 65 

Act V, Scene 3. 1 

(84 solid lines; word-average, .119) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho V. 3 : Birdlime. I ha' brought some 
women a-bed in my time, sir. Sir Gosling. Ay, and some 
young men, too, hast not, Pandora? 

Wonder of a Kingdom II : I'll swear all this stir is about 
having a woman brought to bed; marry, I doubt it must 
be a man's lying in. 

(b) Westward Ho V. 3 : Play, you lousy Hungarians. 
Bellman of London, p. 83 : The poor Hungarian an- 
swered, yes, he was. 

News from Hell, p. 108: Only for my sake the lean jade 
Hungarian [his father, no slang term] 2 would not lay out 
a penny pot of sack for himself. 

Compare also the following: 

Shoemaker s Holiday II. 3 : Come, you mad Hyperboreans . . . 

III. 1 : Here you mad Mesopotamians . . . Silk and satin, 

you mad Philistines ... V. 1 : I promised the mad Cappa- 

docians . . . My fine, dapper Assyrian lads shall clap up 

their windows. 

(c) Westward Ho V. 3 : Play, life of Pharaoh, play. 
Shoemaker s Holiday III. 1 : By the life of Pharaoh, by 

the Lord of Ludgate ... V. 1 : By the life of Pharaoh, by 
this beard ... I. 1 : By the life of Pharaoh, a brave, resol- 
ute swordsman. 

(d) Westward Ho V. 3: Sing, Madge, Madge: sing, owlet. 
Shoemaker's Holiday III. 5 : Come, Madge, on with your 

trinkets, . . . Come, Madge, away, ... V. 1 : Why, my 
sweet Lady Madgy, . . . Lady Madgy, thou hadst never 

1 V. 2 in Dyce is merely eight lines of soliloquy. 

* Dyce says this was a technical canting term ; but the context 
in this passage shows that it has no technical use here. Whether 
as canting term or slang, it is one of a list of common Dekkerian 
expressions. 

e 



66 Chapter III 

covered thy Saracen's head, . . . Lady Madgy, Lady Madgy, 
take two or three of my pie-crust eaters, . . . Trip and go, 
my Lady Madgy, . . . III. 1 : No more, Madge, no more. 

(e) Westward Ho V. 3 : How many of my name, of the Glow- 
worms, have paid for your furred gowns, thou woman's broker ? 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 297 : A company of grave 
and wealthy lechers in the shapes of glow-worms, who 
with gold jingling in their pockets made such a shew in 
the night that the doors of common brothelries flew open 
to receive them. 

(f) Westward Ho V. 3 : Birdlime [to Sir G. Glowworm], 
No sir, I scorn to be beholding to any glow-worm that lives 
upon earth for my fur; I can keep myself warm without 
glow-worms. 

Wonderful Year [To the Reader]: How notoriously, there- 
fore, do good wits dishonour, not only their calling, but even 
their creation, that worship glow-worms instead of the sun 
because of a little false glistering. 1 

(g) Westward Ho V. 3 : What kin art thou to Long Meg 
of Westminster? Thou'rt like her. 

Roaring Girl V. 1 : Was it your Meg of Westminster's 
courage that rescued me from the Poultry Puttocks indeed ? 

Satiro-mastix, p. 219 : No, 't is thou mak'st me so, my 
Long Meg a Westminster. 

(h) Westward Ho V. 3 : Mary Ambree, do not you know me ? 
Satiro-mastix, p. 221 : I say, Mary Ambree, thou shalt 
march foremost. 

(i) Westward Ho V. 3: Cannot the shaking of the sheets 2 
be danced without your town piping? 

Shoemaker s Holiday IV. 5 : Shortly are to come over one 
another with ' Can you dance the shaking of the sheets ? ' . . . 

1 Compare with Wonderful Year (although it shows no likeness 
to Westward Ho) Webster's famous lines : 

Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, 
But looked to near have neither heat nor light. 
White Devil V. 1, and again in Duchess of Malfi. 

2 A stock pun, but a great favorite with Dekker, and never, 
I think, used by Webster. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Westward Ho 67 

V. 5 : I danced the shaking of the sheets with her six and 
thirty years ago. 

Sattro-mastix, p. 208: You shall be put in among these 
ladies, and dance ere long, I trust, the shaking of the sheets. [*] 

(j) Westward Ho V. 3 [Sir Gosling to Birdlime] : Mary 
Ambree, do you not know me ? . . . Whither art bound, 
galley-foist? . . . Whence comest thou, female yeoman of 
the guard ? . . . Dost come to keep the door, Ascapart ? . . . 
Hast not, Pandora ? . . . I would prove 'em, Mother Best-be- 
trust. ... Do I not, Megaera ? . . . Canst sing, woodpecker ? 

Shoemaker's Holiday [Simon Eyre to Margery] : Peace, 
pudding broth. . . . Peace, you gallimafry. ... Is 't so, Dame 
Clapperdudgeon ? . . . Trip and go, you soused conger, away ! . . . 
Peace, you bombast-cotton-candle-quean; away, queen of 
clubs. . . . Away, rubbish. . . . Avaunt, kitchen-stuff ! Kip, you 
brown-bread Tannikin. . . . Look, you powder-beef-quean. . . . 
Rip, you chitterling, avaunt. . . . Away, you Islington white- 
pot. . . . Avaunt, avoid, Mephistophiles. . . . Vanish, Mother 
Miniver-cap. 

(k) Westward Ho V. 3 : Fiddlers, come, strike up. . . . 
You shall sing bawdy songs under every window i' the 
town ; up will the clowns start, down come the wenches ; 
we'll set the men a-fighting, the women a-scolding, the 
dogs a-barking ; you shall go on fiddling, and I follow danc- 
ing Lantaera. 

Wonderful Year, p. 84: The cuckoo, like a single sole 
fiddler that reels from tavern to tavern, plied it all the day 
long; lambs friskt up and down in the valleys, kids and 
goats leapt to and fro on the mountains : shepherds sat 
piping, country wenches singing : lovers made sonnets for 
their lasses, whilst they made garlands for their lovers : 
and, as the city was frolic, so was the country merry. 

Shoemaker's Holiday II. 5 : Sybil. The deer came running 
into the barn through the orchard and over the pale ; I wot 
well I looked as pale as a new cheese to see him. But 
whip, says Goodman Pin-close, up with his flail, and our 
Nick with a prong, and down he fell, and they upon him, 

e2 



68 Chapter HI 

and I upon them. By my troth, we had such sport; arid 
in the end we ended him; his throat we cut, flayed him, 
unhorned him, and my lord mayor shall eat of him anon 
when he comes. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 103 : But at the last drums were 
heard to thunder, and trumpets to sound alarums, murmur 
ran up and down every street, and confusion did beat at 
the gates of every city, men met together, and ran in herds 
like deer frighted, or rather like bears chafed, or else seek- 
ing for prey. 



Act V, Scene 4. 

(332 solid lines; word-average, .169) 

Mixed passage. 

The following passage certainly shows the presence 
of Dekker, and possibly a touch of Webster's pen in 
revising : 

Westward Ho V. 4 : Take Appius and Virginia III. 2 : 
my counsel, I '11 ask no fee I only give you my opinion, 
for 't : I ask no fee for 't. 

White Devil I. 2: This is 
my counsel, and I ask no fee 
for 't. 
bar out host, banish mine Whore of Babylon, p. 213: 
hostess, beat away the cham- Your gallants drink here right 
berlain, let the ostlers walk, worshipfully, eat most impu- 
enter you the chambers peace- dently, dice most swearingly, 
ably, lock the doors gingerly, swear most damnably, quarrel 
look upon your wives woefully, most desperately, and put 
but upon the evildoers most up most cowardly, 
wickedly. 

The Devil is in It, p. 280: You are to say grace de- 
murely, wait on the Prior's trencher soberly, steal a mouthful 
cunningly, and munch it up in a corner hungerly. 



The Parallel- Passage Test — Westward Ho 69 

Aside from the above, there are no passages from 
Webster. 

Other passages from Dekker. 

(a) Westward Ho V. 4 : Tenterhook. A little low woman, 
sayest thou, in a velvet cap? 

Honest Whore II III. 1 : Orlando. A little tiny woman, 
lower than your ladyship by head and shoulders. 

(b) Westward Ho V. 4 : We are bought and sold in 
Brainford market. 

Wonder of a Kingdom IV : My health is bought and sold, 
sir, then by you. [*] 

(c) Westward Ho V. 4 : Say you should rattle up the 
constable, thrash all the country together, hedge in the 
house with flails, pikestaves, and pitchforks, take your wives 
napping, these western smelts nibbling, etc. 

[Compare with last parallel passage of V. 3 ; also for use 
of ' nibbling,' see Westward Ho II. 2, passage (c)]. 

(d) Westward Ho V. 4 : Say . . . that, like so many Vul- 
cans, every smith should discover his Venus dancing with 
Mars in a net. 

Honest Whore I V. 2 : We see you, old man, for all you 
dance in a net. 

(e) Westward Ho V. 4 : Ay, but when light wives make 
heavy husbands, let these husbands play mad Hamlet, and 
cry, ' Revenge.' 

Seven Deadly Sins 7 [Cruelty] : I would . . . that every 
miserable debtor that so dies might be buried at his creditor's 
door, that when he strides over him he might think he still 
rises up, like the ghost in Jeronimo, crying ' Revenge.' 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 262 : But if any mad Hamlet, 
hearing this. [*] 

(f) Westward Ho V. 4: An almond, parrot. 
Honest Whore I V. 2 : Here's an almond for parrot. 
Fortunatus I. 1 : My tongue speaks no language but an 

almond for a parrot. [*] 



70 Chapter HI 

(g) Westward Ho V. 4 : The collier has a sackful of news 
to empty. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 192 : Asin. I have a sackful of news for 
thee ; thou shalt plague some of them, if God send us life 
and health together. Hor. It's no matter, empty thy sack 
anon. 

(h) Westward Ho V. 4 : ' S foot, you ha ' spoiled half al- 
ready, and you'll spoil all if you dam not up your mouths. 
Roaring Girl IV. 2: 'S foot, you'll spoil all. [?] 

(i) Westward Ho V. 4 : At hand, sir, with a wet finger. [*] 
[See Westward Ho II. 2, passage (k)]. 

(j) Westward Ho V. 4 : This bawd has been damned five 
hundred times. 

[For use of ' five hundred ' in Dekker see Northward Ho 
III. 1, passage (a)]. 

(k) Westward Ho V. 4 : For either a cunning woman has 
a chamber in her house, or a physician, or a picture-maker, 
or an attorney, because all these are good cloaks for the 
rain. And then, if the female party that's cliented above- 
stairs be young, she's a squire's daughter of low degree, 
that lies there for physic, or comes up to be placed with 
a countess; if of middle age, she's a widow, and has suits 
at the term or so. 

Honest Whore I 11. 1 : Hip. What may this lady be whom 
you call coz. ? Flu. Faith, sir, a poor gentlewoman, of 
passing good carriage; one that has some suits in law, and 
lies here in an attorney's house. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 268: And where must her 
lodging be taken up but in the house of some citizen, whose 
known reputation she borrows, or rather steals, putting it 
on as a cloak to cover her deformities. . . . As, for example, 
she will lie in some scrivener's house, and so under the 
colour of coming to have a bond made, she herself may 
write Noverint universi. And, though the law threaten to 
hit her never so often, yet hath she subtle defences to ward 
off the blows. For, if gallants haunt the house, then spreads 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Westward Ho 71 

she these colours : she is a captain or a lieutenant's wife in 
the Low Countries, and they come with letters from the 
soldier her husband. If merchants resort to her, then hoists 
she up these sails, she is wife to the master of a ship, and 
they bring news that her husband put in at the straits. . . . 
If shopkeepers come to her, with ' what do you lack ' in their 
mouths, then she takes up such and such commodities. . . . But 
if the stream of her fortunes run low, and that none but 
apronmen launch forth there, then keeps she a politic temp- 
ster's [seamstress ?] shop, or she starches them. 

(1) Westward Ho V. 4 : And therefore set the hare's-head 
against the goose-giblets. 

Shoemaker s Holiday II. 1 : 
I'd set mine old debts against my new driblets, 
And the hare's foot against the goose-giblets. [*] 

(m) Westward Ho V. 4 : Look you, your schoolmaster has 
been in France, and lost his hair. [Takes off his false hair. \ 

Honest Whore II II. 3 : 

Cand. My man? my master, though his head be bare, 
But he's so courteous, he'll pull off his hair. 

Lod. Nay, if your service be so hot a man cannot keep his 
hair on, I '11 serve you no longer. [Takes off his false hair.] 

Bride. Is this your schoolmaster? 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : Green. Nay, gentlemen, seeing your 
women are so hot, I must lose my hair in their company, 
I see. [Takes off his false hair.] 



Chapter VI. 

THE PARALLEL-PASSAGE TEST. 

NORTHWARD HO. 

On the whole, I have not been able to find as 
many parallel passages for Northward Ho as for West- 
ward Ho. This may be partly due to the fact that 
I have not been able to make quite such an exhaus- 
tive study for the latter comedy under this head; but 
I think it is also partly due to the play itself. North- 
ward Ho, all things considered, is not quite so typical 
of Dekker's usual vein as Westward Ho ; also, Web- 
ster had a larger part in it, and it is more difficult 
to get parallel passages from Webster, for reasons 
already mentioned. Nevertheless, I have found at 
least two passages for every scene in Northward Ho, 
usually a much larger number; and here again, as in 
the earlier comedy, the results of this test, although 
sometimes a trifle meagre, agree almost perfectly with 
the results of the three-syllable word-test. 

Act I, Scene 1. 

(193 solid lines ; word-average, .301) 

Passages from Webster. 

(a) Northward Ho I. 1 : Green. Not many nights coming to 
her and being familiar with her, — May. Kissing, and so 
forth? Green. Ay, sir. May. And talking to her feeling- 
ly? ... What, did she talk feelingly to him, too ? 

Devil's Law Case I. 2 : 

I have seen this lord many a time and oft 
Set her in's lap, and talk to her of love 
So feelingly. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Northward Ho 73 

(b) Northward Ho I. 1 : I'll deliver it to you, with protes- 
tation beforehand, I seek not to publish every gentlewoman's 
dishonour, only by the passage of my discourse to have 
you censure the state of our quarrel. 

Cure for a Cuckold V. 1 : 

Yet, misconceive me not, I do entreat you, 
To think I can be of that easy wit 
Or of that malice to defame a lady, 
Were she so kind as to expose herself. 

(c) Northward Ho I. 1 : May. And entertained your love ? 
Green. As meadows do April. 

White Devil IV. 2 : 

Instruction to thee 

Comes like sweet showers to overhardened ground; 

They wet, but pierce not deep. 

Appius and Vir. IV. 2 : 

Thou lov'st me, Appius, as the earth loves rain; 

Thou fain would'st swallow me. 
Devil's Law Case I. 2 : 

If crying had been regarded, maidenheads 

Had ne'er been lost; at least some appearance. 

Of crying as an April shower i' the sunshine. [?] 

(d) Northward Ho I. 1 : The violence, as it seemed, of 
her affection — but, alas, it proved her dissembling — would, 
at my coming and departing, bedew her eyes with love- 
drops : O, she could the art of woman most feelingly ! 

White Devil V. 3 : 

Had women navigable rivers in their eyes, 
They would dispend them all : surely, I wonder 
Why we should wish more rivers to the city, 
When they sell water so good cheap. I tell thee, 
These are but moonish shades of griefs or fears; 
There 's nothing sooner dry than women's tears. 

[Compare also use of ' feelingly ' in passage (b)]. 

(e) Northward Ho I. 1 : In the passage of our loves, amongst 
other favours of greater value, she bestowed upon me this 
ring, which, she protested, was her husband's gift. 



74 Chapter IV 

Cure for a Cuckold V. 1 : 

Roch. Yet, to satisfy you, 

And in some kind, too, to delight myself, 

Those bracelets and the carcanet she wears 

She gave me once. 
Less. They were the first and special tokens passed 

Betwixt her and her husbaud. 

(f ) Northward Ho I. 1 : Lying with her, as I say, and rising 
somewhat early from her in the morning. 
Duchess of Malfi III. 2 : 

Wherefore, still, when you lie with my lady, 
Do you rise so early ? 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho I. 1 : True, but yet it comes scant 
of the prophecy, — Lincoln was, London is, and York 
shall be. 

Wonderful Year, p. 101 : Now and never till now did she 
laugh to scorn that worm-eaten proverb of Lincoln was, 
London is, and York shall be. [*] 

(b) Northward Ho I. 1 : Bellamont. Come, strive to blow 
over these clouds. Mayberry. Not a cloud ; you shall have 
clean moonshine. 

Whore of Babylon, p. 265 : 

All these black clouds we clear: look up, 't is day, 
The sun shines on thee still. 

It will be noticed that one of the two parallel pas- 
sages from Dekker in this scene is from the speeches 
of Mayberry ; that he has very little part in the 
parallel passages from Webster ; and that the other 
parallel from Dekker is in the dialogue with the 
chamberlain. This is interesting in the light of the word- 
test for this scene. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Northward Ho 75 

Northward Ho I. 1. 

Solid lines. Words. Average. 

Greenshield 62 28 .452 

Featherstone 12 5 .417 

Chamberlain 13 .000 

May berry 54 7 .130 

Bellamont 52 18 .346 

Totals 193 58 .301 

Conclusion. When we remember how much more 
the same number of passages count from Webster 
than from Dekker, we see at a glance that the parallel- 
passage test favors Webster decidedly in this scene. 



Act I, Scene 2. 

(108 solid lines; word-average, .185) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho I. 2 : Drawer, tie my shoe, prithee. 
Shoemaker s Holiday III. 4 : Hans, pray thee, tie my shoe. 

(b) Northward Ho 1. 2: And is every one that swims in 
a taffeta gown lettuce for your lips. 

Westward Ho II. 2 : For as the cobbler in the night-time 
walks with his lantern, the merchant and the lawyer with 
his link, and the courtier with his torch, so every lip has 
his lettuce to himself. 

(c) Northward Ho I. 2 : I'm as melancholy now as Fleet- 
street in a long vacation. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 186: What senseless thing in all the 
house that is not now as melancholy as a new set-up 
schoolmaster ? [*] 

(d) Northward Ho L 2 : Those poor wenches that before 
Christmas fled westward with bag and baggage. 



76 Chapter IV 

The Peace is Broken, p. 122 : A great crew of her followers, 
that were not able with bag and baggage to march after 
her in that progress. ... p. 140 : Whereupon many thousands 
with bag and baggage were compelled to leave the city 
and cling only to the suburbs. 

Gull's Hornbook, chap. 8 : When the siege breaks up, and 
at your marching away with bag and baggage. [*] 

(e) Northward Ho I. 2 : No matter though it be a tavern 
that has blown up his master; it shall be in trade still. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 96 : Playhouses stand, like taverns 
that have cast out their masters, the doors locked up. 

(f) Northward Ho I. 2 : It shall then be given out that 
I'm a gentlewoman of such a birth, such a wealth, have 
had such a breeding, and so forth, and of such a carriage 
and such qualities, and so forth. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 252 : They fall in study with 
the general rule of their knavery ; and those are, first, to 
give out that their master is a gentleman of such and such 
means, in such a shire . . . that he is come to receive so 
many hundred pounds upon land that he hath sold. 

(g) Northward Ho I. 2 : Lever. If thou 't have a lodging 
westward, Doll, I '11 fit thee. Doll. At Tyburn, will you not ? 

Roaring Girl II. 1 : Laxton. Prithee, sweet, plump Moll, 
when shalt thou and I go out a' town together? Moll. 
Whither? to Tyburn, prithee? 

[Notice that there is the same quibble on going to Tyburn 
in both]. 

Act I, Scene 3. 

(181 solid lines ; word-average, .100) 

No passages from Webster. 1 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho I. 3 : Up, sir, down, sir ! so, sir.— 

Honest Whore II V. 2 : My twenty pounds did fly high, 

1 Two passages from Webster having a slight likeness are 
given in the foot-notes further on; but in each case there are 
two or three closer parallels from Dekker. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Northward Ho 77 

sir, your wife's gown did fly low, sir; whither fly you 
now, sir? 

(b) Northward Ho I. 3 : Bellamont. He does not look 
like a bawd; he has no double chin. Prentice. No, sir, 
nor my breath does not stink, I smell not of garlic or 
aqua-vilce. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 122 : A company of double-chinned, 
poltfooted, stinking-breathed bawds, who with pewter bottles 
of aqua-vitce at their girdles, — etc. 

(c) Northward Ho I. 3 : Never sold one maidenhead ten 
several times, first to an Englishman, then to a Welshman, 
then to a Dutchman, then to a pocky Frenchman. 

[The list of nationalities here is an almost sure mark of 
Dekker. Compare passages in Westward Ho II. 1 (r)]. 

(d) Northward Ho I. 3 : Never had the grincomes. 
Whore of Babylon, p. 242. Then she has got the pox, 

and lying at my host Grincomes. [?] 

[The word grincomes, meaning the venereal disease, may 
have been common colloquially ; but it is not common with 
the dramatists nor found— as far as I can discover— in 
Webster]. 

(e) Northward Ho I. 3: May. When two virginal jacks 
skip up, as the key of my instrument goes down. Bell. 
They are two wicked elders. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 218: Hark, hither, Susanna, beware of 
these two wicked elders. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 187; When we have husbands, we play 
upon them like virginal jacks ; they must rise and fall to our 
humours. 1 

(f ) Northward Ho I. 3 : Inquire at one of mine aunts. 2 
Shoemakers Holiday IV. 2: Your cousin? No, master; 

one of your aunts. [*] 

(g) Northward Ho I. 3 : Here's the party, sir. 

1 This last quibble was of course common. 

2 Aunt was a common cant term for bawd, but expressions 
like the above are favorites witb Dekker. Others might have 
been collected. 



78 Chapter IV 

Wonder of a Kingdom IV: Gentili. What next? Servant. 
The party, sir. [?] 

(h) Northward Ho I. 8 : 

If ever I had thought unclean, 
In detestation of your nuptial pillow, 
Let sulphur drop from heaven, and nail my body 
Dead to this earth. 

Whore of Babylon, p. 194 : 

Can yonder roof, that's nailed so fast with stars, 

Cover a head so impious and not crack ? 

That sulphur, boiling o'er celestial fires, 

May drop in whizzing flakes with scalding vengeance 

On such a horrid sin ! 

p. 272: 

This stratagem dropt down from heaven in fire, 
p. 210: 

And to forge three-forked thunderbolts at home, 
Whilst I melt sulphur here. 

p. 277: 

Fall thunder, 
And wedge me into earth, stiff as I am. 

(i) Northward Ho I. 3 : 

That slave, that damned Fury, 
Whose whips are in your tongue to torture me, 
Casting an eye unlawful on my cheek, 
Haunted your threshold daily. 

Wonder of a Kingdom HI : 
If you spy any man that has a look 
Stigmatically drawn, like to a Fury's, 
Able to fright, to such I'll give large pay, 
To watch and ward for poor snakes night and day, 
And whip 'em soundly if they approach my gates. 

Suns Darling III: 

Whence come these thunderbolts, what furies haunt you ? 



The Parallel- Passage Test— Northward Ho 79 

( j) Northward Ho I. 3 : 

And threw forth 
All tempting baits which lust and credulous youth 
Apply to our frail sex. 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : 

And then a fourth 
Should have this golden hook and lascivious bait 
Thrown out to the full length. 
Wonder of a Kingdom I : 

Bait a hook with gold and with it . . . 

(k) Northward Ho I. 3 : 
Lodge me in some discomfortable vault, 
Where neither sun nor moon may touch my sight. 1 

Fortunatus V. 1 : 

Lock me in some cave, 
Where staring wonder's eye shall not be guilty 
To my abhorred looks. 
Whore of Babylon, p. 232 : 

Or like to ancresses 
Close up yourselves in artificial walls. 

(1) Northward Ho I. 3 : 
I take your word you 're honest; which good men, 
Very good men will scarce do to their wives. 
Wonder of a Kingdom IV : Alphonsina. I '11 do that, then, 
which some citizens will not do to some lordjs]. Nicoletti. 
What's that? Alphonsina. Take your word; I come. 

(m) Northward Ho I. 3: 

I'll candy o'er my words and sleek my brow. 

1 The following passage from Webster also bears some resem- 
blance, but it is obviously weaker than the two passages from 
Dekker combined : 

Lhichess of Malfi III. 2 : 

I would have thee build 
Such a room for him as our anchorites 
To holier use inhabit. Let not the sun 
Shine on him till he 's dead. 






80 Chapter IV 

Wonder of a Kingdom IV : 

Thou hast candied 
Thy sweet but poisonous language, to dishonour 
Me, thy most wretched sister. 
Satiro-mastix, p. 220 : I '11 give thee none but sugar-candy 
words, I will not, Puss. 

(n) Northward Ho I. 3 : 

I will bring home these serpents and allow them 
The heat of mine own bosom. 
Whore of Babylon, p. 249 : 

A snake that in my bosom once I warmed. 
The Devil is in It, p. 342 : 

This is the snake whose sting, 
Being kept warm in the bosom of a king, 
Struck him to th' heart. 
Match Me in London IV: 

Were the beds 
Of twenty thousand snakes laid in this bosom. 
... I have warmed a snake in my bosom. 
Honest Whore II I. 2 : 

Her bosom 
Gives warmth to no such snakes. [*] 

(o) Northward Ho I. 3 : 

I '11 fetch my blow 
Fair and afar off, and as fencers use, 
Though at the foot I strike, the head I'll bruise. 1 
Whore of Babylon, p. 198 : 

This were with fencers basely to give ground 
When the first bout may speed. 

1 The following passage from "Webster should also be given 
here; but, though similar in thought, it has no such little 
touches of phraseology as the ones from Dekker : 

White Devil Ii. 4 : 

Alas, tbe poorest of their forced dislikes 
At a limb proffers, but at heart it strikes. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Northward Ho 81 

p. 238: 

Your ward blows off from her, that at all weapons 

Strikes at your head. 
The Peace is Broken, p. 124 : The blows that foreign 
enemies give are broken for the most part, because the 
weapon is always seen and put by; otherwise they would 
cut deep and draw blood, where, by such prevention, they 
scarce give bruises. 

(p) Northward Ho I. 3 : Bellamont. From whence come 
you, pray? Philip. From the house of prayer and fasting, 
the Counter. Bellamont. Art thou not ashamed to be seen 
to come out of a prison ? Philip. No, God 's my judge ; 
but I was ashamed to go into prison. 

Whore of Babylon, p. 212 : Titania. Now, sirrah, where 
have you been ? Plain Dealing. Where have I been ? I have 
been in the bravest prison. Titania. What prison? a brave 
prison? Can there be a brave prison? 

(q) Northward Ho I. 3 : I confess I took up a petticoat 
and a raised forepart for her : but who has to do with that ? 

Sun's Darling III : Ray. Brave ladies have their humors. 
Folly. Who has to do with that but brave lords? 

Honest Whore I III. 1 : I am, sir ; what hast thou to do 
with that? 

(r) Northward Ho I. 3 : Her name is Dorothy, sir ; I hope 
that's no ill name. 

Honest Whore II V. 2 : I'm not ashamed of my name, 
sir; my name is Mistress Doll Target, a Western gentle- 
woman. 

(s) Northward Ho I. 3 : The northern man loves white 
meats, the southery man sallads, the Essex man a calf, the 
Kentish man a wag-tail, the Lancashire man an egg-pie, the 
Welshman leeks and cheese, and your Londoners raw mutton. 

Westward Ho II. 2: 1 The lob has his lass, the collier his 
dowdy, the western man his pug, the serving man his punk, 

1 Westward Ho n. 2, is so obviously Dekker's that we can, 
I think, use it to prove other scenes. 

f 



82 Chapter IV 

the student his nun in White-friars, the Puritan his sister, and 
the lord his lady, 

(t) Northward Ho I. 3. Farewell, Father Snot. 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : Tis the dreamingest snotty nose. [?] 






Act II, Scene 1. 

(284 solid lines; word-average, .078) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho II. 1 : If we have but good draughts 
in my peterboat, fresh salmon, you sweet villains, shall be 
no meat with us. 1 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : So, give the fresh salmon line now ; 
let him come ashore. 

Honest Whore II III. 2 : Hast angled ? hast cut up this 
fresh salmon? 

Honest Whore II V. 2 : But the poor salmon-trout is now 
in the net. 

(b) Northward Ho II. 1 : Hornet. How does my chain show, 
now I walk? Doll. If thou wert hung in chains, thou 
couldst not show better. 

The Devil is in It, p. 358 : My chain, let me hang in 
chains, so it be my gold chain. 

(c) Northward No II. 1 : A Dutch merchant that would 
spend all that he's able to make i' the Low-Countries but 
to take measure of my Holland sheets when I lie in 'em. 

Westward Ho II. 2 : If your husband has given up his 
cloak, let another take measure of you in his jerkin. [*] 

(d) Northward Ho II. 1 : O, I shall burst if I cut not my 
lace, I am so vexed. 

Honest Whore I II; 1 : Fie fie, cut my lace, good servant ; 

1 Compare with Northward Ho iv. 3, (a). 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Northward Ho 83 

I shall have the mother presently, I'm so vexed at this horse- 
plumb. 

(e) Northward Ho II. 1 : Allum. When is it to be paid ? 
Doll. Between one and two. 

Roaring Girl IV. 1 : Moll. What's o' clock here ? [Aside 
by Sir Alexander]. Moll. Between one and two. 
The Devil is in It, p. 296 : 

This day 'twixt one and two a gallant 's bound 
To pay 400 crowns to free his lands. 

(f ) Northward Ho II. 1 : By this iron, which is none of 
God's angel. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 193 : I markt, by this candle, which is 
none of God's angels. 1 

(g) Northward Ho II. 1 : O, there is the most abominable 2 seer. 
Satiro-mastix, p. 214 : Sir Vaughan. As good seer as 

would make any hungry man . . . eat and he had any 
stomach. 

(h) Northward Ho II. 1 : I' 11 run headlongs by and by, 
and batter away money for a new coach to jolt you in. . . . 
I will buy not only a coach with four wheels, but also 
a white mare and a stone horse too, because they shall 
traw you very lustily 

Patient Grissil III. 2 : And her shall buy her new card 
to ride in, 3 and two new fine horses, and more blue coats 
and padges to follow her heels. 

Roaring Girl II. 1 : [Laxton to Moll] I '11 hire a coach with 
four horses. 

(i) Northward Ho II. 1 : He paid that shot, and then shot 
pistolets into my pockets. 
Match Me in London III : 

In thy bosom, for thy pistolets, 
I '11 give thee pistols ; in a piece might have been mine 
Thou shoot'st or mean'st to shoot, but I '11 change thine. 

1 Pointed out by Dyce. 

2 Dyce says that ' abominable ' here means ' good '. 
* Suggested by Stoll. 

1'2 



84 Chapter IV 

Act II, Scene 2. 

(201 solid lines ; word-average, .313) 

Passages from Webster. 

(a) Northward Ho II. 2 : Bid them extremely welcome, 

though thou wish their throats cut; 'tis in fashion. 

Duchess of Malfi I. 1 : 

As I have seen some 

Feed in a lord's dish, half a sleep, not seeming 

To listen to any talk; and yet these rogues 

Have cut his throat in a dream. 

Duchess of Malfi I. 1 : Whose throat must I cut ? 

(b) Northward Ho II. 2 : I was in doubt I should have 
grown fat of late : an it were not for law-suits and fear of 
our wives, we rich men should grow out of all compass. 

Duchess of Malfi III. 1 : 
You have not been in law, friend Delio, 
Nor in prison, nor a suitor at the court, 
Nor begg'd the reversion of some great man's place, 
Nor troubled with an old wife, which doth make 
Your time so insensibly hasten. 

II. 1 : Your arm, Cariola, do I not grow fat ? 

(c) Northward Ho II. 2: Look, my wife's colour rises 
already. 

Duchess of Malfi II. 1 : Good, her colour rises. [?] 

(d) Northward Ho II. 2 : God refuse me, they are lying 
rascals. 

White Devil I. 2 : God refuse me, Might I advise you now. 1 
Appius and Virginia II. 2 : Refuse me, if such traitorous 
rogues. [*] 

(e) Northward Ho II. 2 : Wise men should deal by their 
wives as the sale of ordnance passeth in England: ... if 
she hold pure metal two years and fly to several pieces in 
the third, repair the ruins of her honesty at your charges. 

1 A common oath, but apparently a favorite with Webster, and 
not with Dekker. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Northward Ho 85 

Duchess of Malfi III. 5 : 

O misery, like to a rusty o'er-charged cannon, 
Shall I never fly in pieces. 

Doubtful passage. 

Northward Ho II. 2 : Oh God, that I might have my will 
of him ! an it were not for my husband, I'd scratch out his 
eyes presently. 
White Devil II. 1 : 

To dig the strumpet's eyes out; let her lie 
Some twenty months a-dying ! 
Patient Grissil V. 2 : An I were Grissil, I would pull her 
eyes out. [?] 

Passage from Dekker. 

Northward Ho II. 2 : Your citizens' wives are like par- 
tridges, the hens are better than the cocks. 

Honest Whore II I. 3 : The hen shall not overcrow the 
cock; I'll sharpen your spurs. 

[See also Westward Ho V. 4.] 

Conclusion. The evidence is weak for both authors, 
but certainly favors Webster as far as it goes. The 
very absence of good parallels from Dekker seems 
significant, when we compare this scene with those 
certainly written by him. 



Act III, Scene 1. 

(127 solid lines ; word-average, .276) 

Passages from Webster. 

(a) Northward Ho III. 1 : Doll. I will bestow them, in- 
deed, upon a Welsh captain, one that loves cheese better 
than venison; for if you should but get three or four 
Cheshire cheeses, and set them a-running down Highgate- 



86 Chapter IV 

hill, he would make more haste after them than after the 
best kennel of hounds in England. What think you of my 
device? Bellamont. 'Fore God, a very strange device and 
a cunning one. 

Devil's Law Case V. 4 : 

There was a strange experiment of a fencer . . . 

The Welshman in his play, do what the fencer could, 

Hung still an arse ; he could not for his life 

Make him come on bravely; till one night at supper, 

Observing what a deal of Parma-cheese 

His scholar devour'd, goes ingeniously 

The next morning and makes a spacious button 

For his foil of toasted cheese ; and as sure as you live, 

That made him come on the braveliest. 

(b) Northward Ho III. 1 : I think thou art a most admir- 
able, brave, beautiful whore. 
White Devil IV. 1 : 

God's precious ! you shall be a brave, great lady, 
A stately and advanced whore. [?] 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho III. 1 : Thou shalt see me make a fool 
of a poet, that hath made five hundred fools. 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : Bellafront. How many gentlemen 
hast thou served thus? Roger. None but five hundred, be- 
sides prentices and serving-men. 

Honest Whore II V. 2 : And that's more than fifteen women 
among five hundred dare swear. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p 245 : This fetches money from 
him, and this cozens five hundred beside. 

Honest Whore II III. 2 : Mat. Knowest thou never a dam- 
ned broker about the city ? Orl. Damned broker ? yes, 
five hundred. 

(b) Northward Ho III. 1 : Sometimes be merry and stand 
upon thy pantofles. 

Ravens Almanac, p. 198 : Now did Signieur Cobbler stand 
no more on his pantofles. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Northward Ho 87 

(c) Northward Ho III. i: I'll have you make twelve posies 
for a dozen of cheese trenchers. 

Honest Whore I V. 1 : And as one of our cheese trenchers 
says very 1 learnedly,— [' posy ' follows.] 

[d] Northward Ho III. 1 : I had three nest of them [goblets] 
given me by a nobleman. 

Wonderful Year, p. 91 : 

And now do chirrup by fine golden nests 

Of well-hatcht bowls, such as do breed in feasts. 

Honest Whore III. 3 : Didst e'er see such a nest of caps ? 

The thing to be noticed in the above is the use 
of the word ' nest ' in the sense of several together 
or a set. This word is used by other dramatists, 2 
but it is very rare; and the fact that Dekker uses it 
twice elsewhere would imply that he was the man 
who used it in Northward Ho. 

Conclusion. The passages from both authors are 
few in number and poor in quality; they seem to 
imply that both men had some share in this scene, 
and that is about all. 



Act III, Scene 2. 
(142 solid lines; word-average, .183) 
No passages from Webster. 
Passages from Dekker. 
(a) Northward Ho in. 2: Whilst I go and take but two 
kisses, but two kisses from sweet Featherstone. 
Match Me in London V: 

That whilst his wild lust wanders, I may fly 
To my sweet husband's arms. 

» Pointed out by Dyce. 

» Dyce gives one instance each from Marston and Anmn. It 
is also found once in Rowley. 



88 Chapter IV 

(b) Northward Ho III. 2 : Wonder of a Kingdom II : 
O, I am sick, I am sick, I am O, my sweet lord, she 's at it 
sick. . . . again, at it again . . . 

Green. How does she, Mas- Florence. How now, nurse, 
ter Featherstone ? how does my Fiametta ? . . . 

Feather. Very ill, sir, she's Nurse. It takes her all 
troubled with the mother ex- over with a pricking; first 
tremely: I held down her about her stomach, and then 
belly even now, and I might she heaves and heaves, that 
feel it rise. ... no man with all his weight, 

can keep her down. . . . 

Green. I will find a remedy Florence. I will give half 
for this walking, if all the doc- my dukedom for her health, 
tors in town can sell it. 

(c) Northward Ho III. 2 : Pretty little rogue ! I '11 wake 
her and make her ashamed of it. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 211: Ah, little rogue, your wit has picked 
up her crumbs pretty and well. [?] 

(d) Northward Ho III. 2 : Kate. An I were where I would 
be, in your bed, — pray, pardon me, was 't you, Master 
Featherstone? — hem, I should be well then. Squirrel. 
[aside to Leapfrog.] Mark how she wrings him by the fingers. 
Kate. Good night. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 301 : Lust with Prodigality 
were heard to stand closely kissing; and, wringing one 
another by the hand, softly to whisper out four or five 
good nights. 

Act IV, Scene 1. 

(287 solid lines ; word-average, .223) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Cap. Jen. You are a poet, sir, 
are you? Bell. I'm haunted with a fury, sir. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 240 : My delicate, poetical fury, th'ast hit 
it to a hair. 



The Parallel-Passage Test — Northward Ho 89 

Sun's Darling HI: 
Whence come these thunderbolts, what furies haunt you? 

(b) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Ow, by gad, out o' cry. 
Shoemakers Holiday II. 1 : O yes, out of cry, by my troth. 
Patient Grissil II. 1 : Sir Owen is clad out a' cry. 1 

— Sir Emulo is friends out a' cry now. 1 
— By God, is out a' cry friends. 1 

(c) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Cap. Jenkins. But are you 
sure Duke Pepper-noon will give you such good urds be- 
hind your back to your face? 1 

Satiro-mastix, p. 236 : By Sesu, 'tis best you give good 
urds, too. 2 

(d) Northward Ho IV. 1 : God udge me, all France may 
hap die in your debt for this. 

Patient Grissil III. 2 : As God udge me, 1 &c. 
— God udge me, not love her cousin. 
— God udge me, her shall not. 

(e) Northward Ho IV. 1 : There was one young Styanax 
of Monmouthshire, was a madder Greek as any is in all 
England. 

[See Westward Ho II. 1, passage (k).] 

(f) Northward Ho IV. 1: Satiro-mastix, pp. 192-194 : 3 
I'll borrow your judgment: Damn me, if it be not the 
look you, sir, I'm writing best that ever came from me, 
a tragedy, the tragedy of if I have any judgment ; look, 
Young Astyanax. . . . sir, 'tis an Epithalamium for 

Sir Walter Terrel's wedding 

Bellamont. O, ay, ay, ay, Horace. Yet with kisses 
man ; he 's the only courtier will they fee thee, my muse 
that I know there. But what hath marched (dear rogue) 

1 Suggested by Bangs. 

* This may seem like a matter of dialect rather than author- 
ship ; but the Welshman Randall in Rowley's Match at Midnight 
says ' good words,' not ' good urds.' 

8 The passages from both plays are not all given in their 
order, but those from Satiro-mastix are all between p. 192 and 
p. 194. 



90 Chapter IV 

do you think that I may come no farther yet ; but how is 't ? 

to by this ? . . . how is 't ? nay, prithee, good 

Asinius, deal plainly. . . . 

An acrostic were good upon You have seen my acro- 

her name, methinks. . . . sties? . . . 

O, sir, 'tis a figure in poetry : 

mark how 'tis followed : ' Rode Mark now, dear Asinius : 

on their own roofs,' &c. ... ' Let these virgins quickly see 

thee,' &c. . . . 

A gentlewoman that I am 

fallen in withal, over head Over head and ears, i' 

and ears in affections and faith. . . . 
natural desires. . , . 

Could the little horse that I have heard a' the horses 

ambled on the top of Paul's walking a' the top of Paul's, 
carry all the people. 

(g) Northward Ho IV. 1 : 
Now the wild people, greedy of their griefs, 
Longing to see that which their thoughts abhorred, 
Prevented day and rode on their own roofs, . . . 
Making all neighbouring houses tiled with men. 

King's Entertainment, p. 227 : The day for whose sake 
these wonders of wood climbed thus up into the clouds, 
is now come; being so early up by reason of artificial 
lights, which wakened it, that the sun overslept himself, and 
rose not in many hours after, yet bringing with it into the 
very bosom of the city a world of people. The streets seemed 
to be paved with men; stalls instead of rich wares were 
set up with children, open casements filled up with women. 

(h) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Bell. An acrostic were good 
upon her name, methinks. Cap. Jenkins. Cross sticks ! 
I would not be too cross, master poet. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 241 : Sir Vaughan. For he shall make 
another thalimium, or cross-sticks, or some polinodies with 
a few nappy-grams in them. 

(i) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Captain, what would you press 



The Parallel- Passage Test— Northward Ho 91 

me for ? ... Is she i' faith— captain, be honest and tell true 
— is she honest ? . . . Look you, captain, I '11 show you why 
I ask. . . . Shall she come in, captain ? . . . Captain, lie you 
in ambush behind the hangings. 

Satiro-masttx, pp. 199—201 : O, our honest captain, come, 
prithee, let us see ... By Jesu, within this hour, save you, 
captain Tucca. . . . Yes, captain, this is my poor lodging. . . . 
Morrow, captain Tucca, will you whiff this morning? . . . 
To do you pleasure, captain, I will. Dear captain, but one 
word . . . Captain Tucca, but half a word in your ear . . . 
Captain, I know upon what even bases I stand. . . . For our 
sake, captain, nay, prithee hold. . . . With all my heart, 
captain Tucca. . . . Never, captain, I thank God. 

(j) Northward Ho IV. 1 : This goat's pizzle of thine. 
Satiro-masttx, p. 200 : Art thou there, goat's pizzle. 1 
Honest Whore II IV. 2 : Gray -beard, goat's pizzle. 

(k) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Garlic has a white head and 
a green stalk; then why should not I? 

Honest Whore II I. 2 : Though my head be like a leek, 
white, may not my heart be like the blade, green? 1 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 297 : Or that others should 
laugh at them to see white heads growing upon green 
stalks. [*] 

(1) Northward Ho IV 1 : Did I not tell you, old man, 
that she'd win any game when she came to bearing? 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : O, the trial is when she comes to 
bearing. 

(m) Northward Ho IV. 1 : And, as if I were a bawd, no 
ring pleases me but a Death's-head. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 122 : Bawds, who with pewter 
bottles of aqua-vita at their girdles, rings with Death's-heads 
on their forefingers, &c. 

Match Me in London V : Thy wife, for the hoop-ring thou 
marriedst her withal, hath sworn to send thee a Death's-head. 

1 The first of these parallels was pointed out by Stoll. An 
expression more or less like (k) seems to have been proverbial, 
and is traced back by Dyce through Chaucer to Boccaccio. 



92 Chapter IV 

(n) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Cap. Jenkins. I sharge you in 
Apollo's name, whom you belong to, see her forthcoming. 

Satiro-tnastix, p. 257 : In God's name and the king's I sharge 
you to ring it out from all our ears. [?] 

(o) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Cap. Jenkins. You, Mistress 
Salamanders, that fear no burning. 

Satiro-tnastix, p. 215 : Sir Vaughn. I will quench the 
flame out of your name, and you shall be christened Peter 
Salamander. 

Satiro-tnastix, p. 241 : Right, Peter is my salamander ; what 
of him? But Peter is never burnt. 

(p) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Cap. Jenkins. Does the poet 
play Torkin and cast my Lucresie's water too in hugger- 
mugger. 

Satiro-tnastix, p. 214 : One word, Sir Quintilian, in hugger- 
mugger. [*] 

(q) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Would I low after thee that art 
a common calf-bearer? 

Sun's Darling III: Humor. When will you sing my 
praises thus? Raybright. Thy praises, that art a common 
creature. [?] 

(r) Northward Ho IV. 1 : Greenshield . . . entreats his 
friend to ride before his wife and fetch the money, because, 
taking bitter pills, he should prove but a loose fellow if he 
went, and so durst not go. 

The Devil is in It, p. 228 : 

Brisco. The physic of your proclamation works : 
Your gilded pills (rolled up in promises 
Of princely favors to his wit, who highest 
Can raise your pleasures) slip so smoothly down 
Your subjects' throats, that all upon a sudden 
Are loosely given. 
King. How loosely given? why count? 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Northward Ho 93 

Act IV, Scene 2. 

(39 solid lines; word-average, .179) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho IV. 2 : Your Norfolk tumblers are but 
zanies to cony-catching punks. 

Raven's Almanac, p. 173: I find likewise that a number 
of you will fall into certain toils which shall be pitched day 
and night for you by certain greedy hunters, called punks. . . . 
Yet are they of the nature of dogs, and more nimble than 
Norfolk tumblers. 

(b) Northward Ho IV. 2 : I think she has sent the poor 
fellow to Gelder-land. 

Shoemakers Hoi. II. 3 : 

Der was een bore van Gelderland, 

Frolick sie byen. 
Honest Whore II ' V. 2 : 

I ha' been tried, sir, too, in Gelderland. 



Act IV, Scene 3. 

(178 solid lines ; word-average, 107) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho IV. 3 : Foh ! they as soon as they come 
to their lands, get up to London, and, like squibs that run 
upon lines, they keep a spitting of lire and cracking till they 
have spent all; and when my squib is out, what says his 
punk? Foh, he stinks. 

[This passage, as Mr. Stoll says, is probably imitated from 
the following passage in Marston's Fawn; but the extracts 
from Dekker's later plays given below seem to show that 
it was Dekker, and not Webster, who imitated Marston.] 

Marston's Fawn : Page. There bs squibs, sir, which squibs 
running upon lines, like some of our gaudy gallants, sir, 



94 Chapter IV 

keep a smother, sir, with flishing and flashing, and in the 
end, sir, they do, sir — 

Nymphadora. What, sir? Page. Stink, sir. 

Dekker's Whore of Babylon, p. 230 : 

Let us behold these fireworks, that must run 
Upon short lines of life. 

Roaring Girl V. 1 : Used that rogue like a firework to 
run upon a line betwixt him and me. 

Honest Whore II II. 1 : The fire-works that ran upon lines 
against my old master, your father, were but to try how 
my young master, your husband, loved such squibs. 

(b) Northward Ho IV. 3 : What, will these young gentle- 
men too help us to catch this fresh salmon? 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : So, give the fresh salmon line 
now; let him come ashore. 

Honest Whore II III. 2 : Hast angled ? hast cut up this 
fresh salmon? 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : And thou shalt take thy husband 
casting out his net to catch fresh salmon at Brainford. 

(c) Northward Ho IV. 3 : The prentices made a riot upon 
my glass windows, the Shrove Tuesday following. 

7 Deadly Sins [6 — Shaving]: They presently (like prentices 
upon Shrove Tuesday) take the law into their own hands 
and do as they list. [*] 

(d) Northward Ho IV. 3 : 

I sold her maidenhead once, and I sold her 

maidenhead twice, 
And I sold it last to an alderman of York, 
And then I had sold it thrice. 
Northward Ho I. 3 : Never sold one maidenhead ten sev- 
eral times, first to an Englishman, then to a Welshman, then to 
a Dutchman, then to a pocky Frenchman. 

[Dekker's, as shown by list of nationalities. See West- 
ward Ho II. 1 for parallels.] 

(e) Northward Ho IV. 3 : Marry muff, sing thou better. 
Satiro-mastix, p. 202 : Marry muff, my man a ginger-bread. 
Honest Whore I II. 1 : Marry muff, a' your counts. [*] 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Northward Ho 95 

Act V, Part A. 

(384 solid lines; word-average, .341) 
Passages from Webster. 

(a) Northward Ho V. A : Devil's Law Case II. 1 : 
Observe him, he's not one of You have certain rich city 
your fat city chuifs. . . . chuffs. 

Whose reward is not the White Devil II. 4 : 
rate of a captain newly come What hast got, 

out of the Low Countries. . . . But, like the weath of 
some angel. captains, a poor handful ? 

(b) Northward Ho V. A: God refuse me, gentlemen. [*] 
[See Northward Ho II. 2.] 

(c) Northward Ho V. A : O my unfortunate parents, would 
you had buried me quick, when you linked me to this 
misery. 

White Devil II. 1 : 

Thou hast a wife, our sister: would I had given 
Both her white hands to death, bound and locked fast 
In her last winding-sheet, when I gave thee 
But one! [?] 

(d) Compare the following, chiefly, for general 
style : 

Northward Ho V. A : Hostess. An you had sent for me 
up, and kissed me, and used me like a hostess, 'twould 
never have grieved me; but to do it to a stranger! 

Devil's Law Case IV. 2 : And once, in truth, he would 
have had some dealing with me, — which I took; he thought 
'twould be the only way in the world to make me keep 
counsel the better. 

I. 2 : Win. Very well, sir. You may use me at your 
pleasure. 

Romelio. By no means, Winifred ; that were the way 
To make thee travel again. . . . 



96 Chapter IV 

Win. Plague of these unsanctified matches ! 

they make us loathe 
The most natural desire our grandam 

Eve ever left us. 
Force one to marry against their will! 

why, 'tis 
A more ungodly work than enclosing 

the commons. 

(e) Northward Ho V. A : That I might be presently turned 
into a matter more solid than horn, — into marble. 

White Devil III. 2 : What, are you turned all marble ? 

(f) Northward Ho V. A: Wilt thou hang at my purse, 
Kate, like a pair of Barbary buttons, to open when 'tis full 
and close when 'tis empty? 

Duchess of Malfi II. 2 : Tell them that the Devil takes 
delight to hang at a woman's girdle, like a false rusty watch, 
that she cannot discern how the time passes. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho V. A : And so all his artillery should have 
recoiled into his own bosom. 

Match Me in London III : John. Shoot off the piece you 
have charged. Valasco. No, it recoils. 

Wonder of a Kingdom II: As for my old huckster's 
artillery, I have walls of chastity strong enough, shoot he never 
so hard. [?] 

(b) Northward Ho V. A: And so, after, master citizen 
sleeps as quietly as if he lay in his own Low Country of 
Holland, his own linen, I mean, sir. 

Roaring Girl II. 1 : Have I found out one of your haunts ? 
I send you for Hollands, and you 're in the Low Countries 
with a mischief. 

(c) Northward Ho V. A : I think when he comes home, 
poor snail, he '11 not dare to peep forth of doors lest his 
horns usher him. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 110: No, but like snails pulling 
in the horns of their fury, they hid their heads for a time. 



The Parallel-Passage Test— Northward Ho 97 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 254: They are not idle 
neither; but like snails they venture abroad. 

p. 268 : If before she swaggered in taverns, now with the 
snail she stirreth not out of doors. 

Honest Whore II III. 3 : I am a snail, sir, seldom leave 
my house. 

lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 297 : Then came forth certain 
infamous, earthy-minded creatures in the shape of snails, 
who all the daytime hiding their heads in their shells, lest 
boys should with two fingers point at them for living basely 
upon the prostitution of their wives, cared not now before 
candlelight to shoot out their largest and longest horns. 

(d) Northward Ho V. A : Have I lost the pleasure of mine 
eyes, the sweets of my youth, the wishes of my blood, and 
the portion of my friends, to be thus dishonored, to be 
reputed vile in London, whilst my husband prepares com- 
mon diseases for me at Ware? 

Roaring Girl IV. 2 : 

Did I for this lose all my friends, refuse 
Rich hopes and golden fortunes, to be made 
A stale to a common whore ? 

(e) Northward Ho V. A : Look you, sir, you gallants visit 
citizens' houses, as the Spaniard first sailed to the Indies. 

The Devil is in It, p. 266 : 
That men to find Hell, now, new ways have sought, 
As Spaniards did to the Indies. 

Conclusion. When we remember that this is by far 
the longest scene in the two plays — having a total 
of 384 solid lines — we see that five passages from 
Dekker, although four of them are fairly close, do not 
forbid giving most of this scene to Webster. It must 
be confessed, however, that most of the parallels from 
Webster in this scene are weak. In considering this, 
we must bear in mind, as was said before, the small 
range of his extant writing, and the fact that it is 
nearly all of a different kind. 

g 



98 Chapter IV 

Act V, Part B. 

(162 solid lines; word-average, .148) 

No passages from Webster. 

Passages from Dekker. 

(a) Northward Ho V. B : Leap but into the saddle that 
now stands empty for you, you are made forever. 

Lanthorn and Candlelight, p. 250: As by a mad sort of 
comrades whom I see leaping into the saddle, anon it will 
appear. 

Honest Whore II IV. 1 : The master no sooner lights but 
the man leaps into the saddle. 

[All three of the above passages are metaphorical.] 

(b) Northward Ho V. B : Look you, sir, there is as pretty 
a little pinnace struck sail hereby, and comes in lately : she 's 
my kinswoman. 

Match Me in London II : 

I hope your majesty 
Dare swear I ha' played the pilot cunningly, 
Fetching the wind about to make this pinnace 
Strike sail as you desired. [*] 

(c) Northward Ho V. B : Philip, this is your shuffling o' 
the cards, to turn up her for the bottom card at*Ware. 

Match Me in London IV : I did but shuffle the first dealing ; 

you cut last and dealt last; by the same token you turned 

up a court card. 

Wonder of a Kingdom V : 

Both how they shuffled, cut, and dealt about, 
What cards were best after the trumps were out, 
Who played false play, who true, who sought to save 
An ace i' the bottom, and turned up a knave. 

(d) Northward Ho V. B : Pogs on you. 
Patient Grissil IV. 2 : A pogs on you. 1 [?] 

1 Suggested by Bangs. 



Chapter V. 
DIALECTIC AND METRICAL TESTS. 

One trait of Dekker's, which is a matter of common 
knowledge to his readers, is his fondness for dialect 
and for phrases in modern languages. In this he is 
very different from Webster. Both authors quote 
Latin occasionally ; but Webster never, I believe, 
certainly almost never, uses a phrase of French, 
German, Spanish, or Italian, although three of his 
plays are located in modern Italy, although Antonio 
has just come from France, and although Crispiano 
and Julio are Spaniards. Dekker, on the contrary, 
has the Dutch of the pretended Hans, the Welsh 
of Sir Owen and Sir Vaughn ap Rees, the Irish of 
Bryan in The Honest Whore, Part II, and of the dis- 
guised Andelocia in Old Fortunatus, the broken Eng- 
lish of Angelo as a pretended French doctor in The 
Wonder of a Kingdom, the Spanish of Insultado in 
Old Fortunatus, &c. Consequently, we have every 
right to consider the presence of dialect passages, 
or phrases from a modern foreign language, as 
evidences of Dekker's work. 

One such phrase, Honeysuckle's que nouvelles, is 
found in II. 1 of Westivard Ho, and several Dutch 
phrases in II. 3 of the same play. Also in V. 4 we 
have Justiniano's pardonnez-moi. It is in Northward Ho, 
however, that this test is chiefly useful. Here the 
Dutch speeches of Hans van Belch and the Welsh 
of Captain Jenkins are prominent enough to form 
a considerable part of II. 1, IV. 1, IV. 2, and V. B. 

g2 



100 Chapter V 






The likeness between these speeches and the Dutch 
in The Shoemaker's Holiday or the Welsh in Satiro- 
mastix and Patient Grissil has already been pointed 
out, 1 and must be obvious to any reader. 

Now it is certainly a significant fact that every 
scene in which these French or dialect speeches occur 
is a scene with a low word-average, and that the 
parallel passages for every one of these scenes are 
wholly from Dekker. In other words, we have here 
three different tests side by side, and all agreeing. 

There is another form of test which, like the dialect 
one, applies to only a few scenes, but is very useful 
as far as it goes. II. 2 and IV. 2 in Westward Ho, 
and I. 3 in Northward Ho are partly in verse, and 
there are also a few lines of verse at the end of 
II. 1 in Westward Ho. Here we can apply metrical 
tests, and see whether they agree with the others. 

In the passages from Westward Ho the versification 
is clearly that of Dekker. The masculine endings, 
and the regular, measured beat of the ten-syllable 
line, are typical of Dekker, and in marked contrast 
with Webster's frequent feminine endings, rugged 
transitions in the middle of the line, and numerous 
trisyllabic feet. The large amount of rime is also 
characteristic of Dekker, whereas Webster 2 uses rime 

1 See Bangs' remarks on this subject, Engl. Stud. 28. 218. 

2 The following table shows some of the chief features of 
Webster's metre. It is taken from E. E. Stoll's John Webster, 
p. 190, and is based on an examination of from 500 to 700 lines. 
Eor a discussion of Dekker's metre see the chapter on Sir Thomas 
Wyatt (see over). 

Extra syllable, exclu- Feminine Run-on -p. 

sive of epic csesura endings lines 

White Devil 18.6 »/ 31.4 °/o 36.28 °/ 4.5 °/ 

Duchess of MalfL 35.5 „ 32.6 „ 49.95 „ 2.1 „ 

Devil's Law Case 29.8 „ 32.6 „ 35.8 „ 1.03 „ 

Appius and Virginia 11.8 „ 27.1 „ 28.76 „ 5.6 „ 

Cure for a Cuckold 10.9 „ 19.5 „ 28.88 „ 1.17 „ 



Dialectic and Metrical Tests 101 

sparingly. Like Dekker, also, are rimes between 
different speeches, x and the rime of a short line with 
a long one, or of a fragment of a line with a whole 
one. Run-on lines are perhaps more common in these 
scenes than in his plays as a whole, but no more 
common than in many separate scenes. 

A comparison of the following typical passages will 
illustrate these various facts : 

Honest Whore I V. 2 : 

I have a hand, dear lord, deep in this act, 

For I foresaw this storm, yet willingly 

Put forth to meet it. Oft have I seen a father 

Washing the wounds of his dear son in tears, 

A son to curse the sword that struck his father, 

Both slain i' the quarrel of your families. 

Those scars are now ta 'en off; and I beseech you 

To seal our pardon ! All was to this end, 

To turn the ancient hates of your two houses 

To fresh green friendship, that your loves might look 

Like the spring's forehead, comfortably sweet : 

And your vexed souls in peaceful union meet, 

Their blood will now be yours, yours will be theirs, 

And happiness shall crown your silver hairs. 

Westward Ho IV. 2 : 
Her body is the chariot of my soul, 
Her eyes my body's light, which if I want, 
Life wants, or if possess, I undo her, 
Turn her into a devil, whom I adore, 
By scorching her with the hot stream of lust. 
'T is but a minute's pleasure, and the sin 
Scarce acted is repented : shun it, than : 
O, he that can abstain is more than man! 
Tush ! Resolvest thou to do ill, be not precise : 
Who write of virtue best are slaves to vice. 

1 Practically all these metrical tests are from Mr. Stoll. See 
his discussion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, pp. 52 — 54 of his John Webster. 



102 Chapter V 

The music sounds alarum to my blood : 
What 's bad I follow, yet I see what 's good. 

Duchess of Malfi III. 2 : 

Whate'er thou art that hast enjoyed my sister, 

For I am sure thou hear'st me, for thine own sake 

Let me not know thee. I came hither prepared 

To work thy discovery; yet am now persuaded 

It would beget such violent effects 

As would damn us both. I would not for ten millions 

I had beheld thee : therefore use all means 

I never may have knowledge of thy name ; 

Enjoy thy lust still, and a wretched life 

On that condition. — And for thee, vile woman, 

If thou do wish thy lecher may grow old 

In thy embracements, I would have thee build 

Such a room for him as our anchorites 

To holier use inhabit. Let not the sun 

Shine on him till he 's dead; let dogs and monkeys 

Only converse with him, and such dumb things 

To whom nature denies use to sound his name ; 

Do not keep a paraquito, lest she learn it; 

If thou do love him, cut out thine own tongue, 

Lest it bewray him. 

In Northward Ho I. 3 the evidence is not so strong. 
There are fewer rimes and more feminine endings, 
and a large number of run-on lines. Nevertheless the 
general movement of the verse is that of Dekker, and 
the differences noted above are only such as can be 
found in some of Dekker's scenes. A special char- 
acteristic of Dekker which is not exactly a question 
of metre, but which comes in here most conveniently, 
is what Mr. Stoll calls his eruptive, sulphurous style. 
This is certainly shown in the scene in question. 

The following passages seem to show that Dekker 
might have written this scene : 






Dialectic and Metrical Tests 103 

Northward Ho I. 3 : 

Villains, you have abused me, and I vow 

Sharp vengeance on your heads! — Drive in your tears: 

I take your word you 're honest; which good men, 

Very good men, will scarce do to their wives. 

I will bring home these serpents, and allow them 

The heat of mine own bosom; wife, I charge you, 

Set out your haviours toward them in such colours 

As if you had been their whore ; I '11 have it so. 

I '11 candy o'er my words and sleek my brow, 

Entreat 'em that they would not point at me, 

Nor mock my horns : with this arm I '11 embrace 'em, 

And with this — go to ! 

Honest Whore I II. 1 : 

You 're like the Jews, scattered, in no place certain, 

Your days are tedious, your hours burdensome : 

And were 't not for full suppers, midnight revels, 

Dancing, wine, riotous meetings, which do drown 

And bury quite in you all virtuous thoughts, 

And on your eyelids hang so heavily, 

They have no power to look so high as Heaven, — 

You'd sit and muse on nothing but despair, 

Curse that devil Lust, that so burns up your blood, 

And in ten thousand shivers break your glass 

For his temptation. Say you taste delight, 

To have a golden gull from rise to set, 

To mete you in his hot, luxurious arms, 

Yet your nights pay for all: I know you dream 

Of warrants, whips and beadles, and then start 

At a door's windy creak ; think every weasel 

To be a constable, and every rat 

A long-tailed officer: Are you now not slaves? 

O, you 've damnation without pleasure for it. 

Satiro-mastix, p. 198 : 

Say that you have not sworn unto your paper, 

To blot her white cheeks with the dregs and bottom 

Of your friends' private vices : say you swear 



104 Chapter V 

Your love and your allegiance to bright virtue 

Makes you descend so low, as to put on 

The office of an executioner, 

Only to strike off the swoln head of sin, 

Where'er you find it standing, 

Say you swear; 

And make damnation parcel of your oath, 

That when your lashing jests make all men bleed, 

Yet you whip none. Court, city, country, friends, 

Foes, all must smart alike ; yet court, nor city, 

Nor foe, nor friend, dare wink at you; great pity. 

Mr. Stoll says, ' The verse in Westward Ho and 
Northward Ho is in every way like Dekker's.' I should 
qualify this statement by saying that the versification 
in Westward Ho is strong evidence for the theory of 
Dekker's authorship, and that that in Northward Ho is 
consistent with such a theory, but indeterminate as 
evidence. 

Now if we look back, we shall find that every one 
of these scenes containing verse-passages is a scene 
with a low word-average, that each of them has a 
long list of parallel passages, and that these parallel 
passages are all from Dekker. In other words, here 
again we have three different tests agreeing perfectly. 

This fact is quite important, because the two Earl- 
scenes in Westward Ho contain the best literature in 
the three collaborated plays ; and the question of 
their authorship is a vital question to every intelligent 
student of English literature. 



Chapter VI. 
THE INCIDENT-TEST. 

Another form of evidence which is often very 
valuable is a similarity of incident between a collab- 
orated and an uncollaborated play. This test is 
especially valuable in the case of authors who are 
known to have the habit of repeating incidents and 
situations in their various works. That Dekker is 
emphatically such a writer has already been pointed 
out by Mr. Stoll. l But if we examine Webster care- 
fully, we shall find that he frequently does the same, 
although not to quite such an extent as Dekker; and 
consequently that parallel events and situations from 
either author, as well as parallel passages, can be 
accepted as strong evidence. 

As an example of incident repeated in Webster, 
we may point to his law-court scenes. Three different 
plays of his — The White Devil, The Devil's Law Case, 
and Appius and Virginia — contain trial scenes. More- 
over, in each of these scenes there is a spruce lawyer 
more eloquent than impressive. Again, both the scene 
in The White Devil and the scene in The Devil's Law 
Case start out by assigning a place to a prominent 
spectator (Brachiano and Ercole). In The Devil's Law 
Case, Contarino and Ercole come to court in disguise. 
In Appius and Virginia, Virginius and his daughter 
come in the dress of slaves, which is as near to 
a disguise as historical truth will permit. Both Vir- 

1 John Webster, pp. 71—72. 



106 Chapter VI 

ginius and Vittoria plead to the court in their own 
defense. 

Another feature of Webster's work, which is partly 
due, no doubt, to his scnool of the drama, but which 
also shows his tendency to repeat incidents, is his 
use of disguise. In The White Devil, Francisco de 
Medecis disguises himself as a Moor to go to Bra- 
chiano's court. In The Devil's Law Case, Jolenta also 
disguises herself as a Moor in her escape. In The 
White Devil, Lodovico and Gasparo appear disguised 
as friars. In The Devil's Law Case, Contarino and 
Ercole disguise themselves as friars also. 

Other instances might be cited. Both Brachiano 
and the cardinal in The Duchess of Malfi are murdered 
by one or two desperate men in their own palaces, 
while their own friends are kept out of the room 
through a misunderstanding. The last thing in both 
The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi is where 
the son of the leading male character (Giovanni and 
the son of Antonio) enters as the inaugurator of 
a new regime. Other instances might be given ; but 
these are sufficient to show that Webster frequently 
does repeat himself in incident and situation. 

Now if we are to use these parallel circumstances, 
as we may call them, to decide the authorship of 
particular scenes, we must carefully confine ourselves to 
events that happen wholly, or, at least, chiefly, within 
those scenes. If Webster were writing an additional 
scene for an existing play of Dekker's, it is obvious that 
he would make the action of his part fit into the action 
of the whole, and threads of movement which run 
throughout the play would be incorporated into his work, 
without proving in any way that he first conceived them. 
For instance, Mr. Stoll implies that I. 1 in Westward 
Ho was written by Dekker, because Justiniano, like Lacy 



The Incident-Test 107 

in The Shoemaker's Holiday, decides to lurk around 
London in disguise. But, this disguise of Justiniano's 
forms the backbone of the whole play, and runs 
through scene after scene. It is barely mentioned 
in the last speech of the opening scene, that is all; 
and this mention is not in any way a part of that 
scene itself, but simply the connecting link by which 
the author of that scene fastened his work to the rest 
of the play. In the same way, Mr. Stoll would give 
Act V of Northward Ho to Dekker, because the way 
in which the different characters assemble is very 
similar to the way in which they come together during 
the last act in both parts of The Honest Whore. But 
here again, this gathering is a movement which starts 
with Mayberry's proposal in IV. 1, and runs through 
almost two. entire acts. Moreover, this assembling of 
all the dramatis persona? is not carried out in V. A, 
but in V. B. The chief thing in V. A is the trick 
by which Greenshield brings his own wife to his 
comrades unwittingly ; and this is a wholly isolated 
event, conceived, carried out, and finished, all within 
the limits of that one scene. These parallels of 
Mr. Stoll's are very valuable in determining who 
planned this or that play as a complete whole, and 
that is really the only question which that writer is 
discussing; but they should not be applied to single 
scenes. 

Now it must be said at the start that the incident- 
test is one which is very liable to abuse. The variety 
of expression in language is almost infinite ; the pos- 
sible variations in incident are quite limited ; and 
consequently likenesses which are due to mere chance 
must be far more frequent in parallel incidents than 
in parallel passages. Then, too, the idea of stage- 
action is so indefinite, and depends so much on the 



108 Chapter VI 

reader's interpretation, that the personal equation 
enters far more than in a discussion of passages ; 
and this personal element, in the case of an enthusiastic 
student, is liable to be prejudiced. However, in 
the following pages I have tried to be as fair 
and judicial as possible ; and if at times I have 
made mountains out of molehills, that is a small 
matter, if at other times I have produced some trust- 
worthy evidence. For the sake of clearness, I shall 
take these plays up in order, scene by scene. 

Westward Ho. 
I. 1. There are so many bawds in Dekker's plays, 
that we naturally think of them at the first appear- 
ance of Birdlime. Yet, if we examine all these inter- 
esting ladies in detail, we fail to find them in situ- 
ations like that of Birdlime here. The scenes intro- 
ducing Madam Fingerlock and Madam Horseleech 
have absolutely no connection. The nearest parallel 
in Dekker is Lady Dildoman in Match Me in London, 
and Lady Dildoman acts as go-between for a king 
and a citizen's wife, as Birdlime does for the Earl 
and Mrs. Justiniano. But, on examination the likeness 
proves deceptive. Lady Dildoman does not carry 
any messages to Tormiella ; on the contrary, she comes 
with the king himself, and he does most of the talk- 
ing. Also, in the scene before Tormiella's house, 
no jealous husband appears, no word about love is 
said. The king and his bawd come like respectable 
people, chaffer for merchandise, and go away. There 
is a second scene at the king's palace, where Dildo- 
man attempts to win over Tormiella to unchastity ; 
but this scene again has scarcely any likeness to 
I. 1 in Westward Ho, although, as we shall point out 
later, it has a very strong likeness to II. 2. This 



The Incident-Test 109 

second scene in Match Me in London is at the lover's 
house ; I. 1 is at the husband's ; in this the lover is 
present with the bawd, and the husband is not there ; 
in I. 1 the lover is not there, and the husband comes 
in ; moreover, Tormiella is frightened and angry, while 
Mrs. Justiniano is half won over. In short, there is 
no scene in Dekker which shows even a plausible 
likeness to the one under discussion. 

\Now there is no very convincing parallel in Webster 
either ; but I. 2 of The White Devil offers some rather 
interesting analogies. If we begin in this scene at 
page 12 of the Mermaid Edition, where Vittoria comes 
in and Camillo retires to the back of the stage, we 
have the following situation : The characters in the 
foreground are a bawd (Flamineo) and a citizen's 
wife (Vittoria). The bawd is tempting the woman to 
yield to the love of a great nobleman (Brachiano) ; 
and it is significant that both Birdlime and Flamineo 
tempt the woman with similar promises of soft beds 
and perfumed linen. 1 Then the husband (Camillo) 
comes forward, and we have the same trio as that in 
Westward Ho. True, he is not jealous now as Justi- 
niano is, but he has been very jealous a few pages 
back, and has required a great deal of soothing down. 
Here the likeness stops, for, when the trio breaks up, 
the bawd and wife are left together instead of the 
husband and wife. X 

The above comparison is rather forced ; I do not 
claim that it proves very much ; but, as far as it goes, 
it certainly favors Webster rather than Dekker. 

I. 2. In this scene Monopoly is making love to 
Mrs. Tenterhook, and at the same time carrying on 
pecuniary dealings with her husband, somewhat as 

1 See parallel passages, Westward Ho i. l. 



HO Chapter VI 

Laxton does with Mr. and Mrs. Gallipot in The Roar- 
ing Girl III. 2. 1 There is nothing at all like it in 
Webster. 

II. 1. This scene shows a rather striking similarity 
to II. 1 in the second part of The Honest Whore. In 
Westward Ho, Justiniano, in the disguise of a school- 
master, talks for a while with Honeysuckle ; he is 
then left alone with his wife, and gives her a letter 
from her lover. In The Honest Whore, Orlando, in the 
disguise of a serving man, talks for a while with 
Matheo, and then is left alone with his wife, and 
gives her a message and a purse from her lover. There 
is nothing in the least like it in Webster. 

II. 2. The early part of this scene bears some 
likeness to the second scene of Act II in Match Me 
in London. In both, the characters engaged are 
a lover of high rank, a citizen's wife, and a bawd. 
In both, the scene is at the lover's house. In both, 
the bawd first, and later the lover, urges the woman 
to yield. To be sure, Birdlime goes out while the 
Earl and Mrs. Justiniano are talking, whereas Lady 
Dildoman stays and helps out the king ; but this les- 
sens the parallelism without destroying it. 

As regards the latter part of the scene, I will quote 
Mr. Stoll : 

In Westward Ho, II, 2, a woman— Mrs. Justiniano — turns 
from her evil way, and, on the next approach of the bawd, 
curses her. Exactly so in The Honest Whore, Pt. I, III, 2, 
the repentant Bellafront. 

There is even a likeness in their words, as can be 
seen by referring to the parallel passages for this 
scene. 

II. 3. In this scene, the discussion about a trip 
and the decision to go to Brainford bear some like- 

1 From Stoll. 



The Incident-Test 111 

ness to II. 1 in The Roaring Girl, where Laxton and 
Moll plan a trip to the same place. * In each case, 
a rendezvous is appointed, the Greyhound in Westward 
Ho, and Gray's Inn Fields in The Roaring Girl. The 
device to have the child sick is found again in The 
Bachelor's Banquet; but that has already been given 
under the head of parallel passages. 

III. 1. This dialogue of a wife and a husband, in 
which the wife wheedles the husband into a scheme 
by which she may privately see her lover, is very 
much like thescene in chapter 8 of The Bachelor's Banquet, 
p. 229. In The Bachelor's Banquet, the two are talk- 
ing at night instead of in the daytime, and the precise 
scheme is different ; but the wheedling tone of the 
wife, the good-natured but reluctant yielding of the 
husband, and the woman's ultimate design of seeing 
her lover privately, are common to both. 

III. 2. For this scene, I quote from Mr. Stoll: 2 

In Westward Ho, III, 2, there is an arrest of a gallant 
by Sergeant Ambush and his yeoman, Clutch ; as in North- 
ward Ho, II, 1, by two sergeants, as in The Roaring Girl 
III, 3, by Sergeant Curtleaxe and Yeoman Hanger. In The 
Honest Whore, Part I, IV, 3, moreover, Candido is arrested 
by officers, and in Part II, Candido with others. In the first 
instances the sergeants and yeomen are very like in char- 
acter — important, and stern against evildoers. 

Monopoly's attempt to escape by passing himself 
off as one of the court also reminds us of a similar 
device suggested in chap. 8 of The Gull's Hornbook. 

The only thing which can possibly suggest this 
incident in Webster is the part of the two lictors in 
Appius and Virginia III. 2. But, although this scene 
furnishes one very marked parallel passage, it shows 

1 Suggested by Stoll. 
1 John Webster, p. 72. 



112 Chapter VI 

very little similarity in any other way. In Webster, 
the lictors satirize society for a page or two, in 
a manner wholly unlike Ambush or Hanger; then 
they drop into the background, and have nothing to 
say or do when the actual arrest occurs. Moreover, 
in Webster the person arrested is an innocent young 
girl, while in both Westward Ho and The Roaring Girl 
it is a gay young man about town. 

X III. 3. This scene shows a number of surprising 
similarities to The Devils Law Case III. 2. In each 
the scene is a street before a house-door. In each, 
the principal character comes on at the opening of 
the scene in disguise. In each case this disguised 
person speaks with two people who come out of the 
house to meet him. Justiniano comes to deliver 
a message, Romelio to make a proposal ; but both 
come to talk with the inmates of the house on spec- 
cial errands, and the very length of the two conver- 
sations is about the same. Again, each of these two 
men, Romelio and Justiniano, indulges in two long 
and rather abstract soliloquies ; and, in each case, 
one of these soliloquies comes before his conversation 
with the people in the house, and the other after 
they have left him. It is true that in The Devil's Law 
Case the audience are probably supposed to imagine 
a change of scene a few lines before the second 
soliloquy, since that appears to be spoken by Con- 
tarino's bed. But the dialogue at the point of shift 
is so closely linked that it is impossible to treat it 
dramatically as two scenes. Obviously this is one 
of those cases, rendered possible by Elizabethan stage- 
machinery, where the place was supposed to change, 
but the action was continuous. Hence the two solil- 
oquies of Romelio would fit in almost exactly like 
those of Justiniano. 



The Incident -Test 113 

Another important thing to notice is that Justini- 
ano does not act the part of a collier. He says ' Buy 
any small coal ' once or twice in a rather perfunctory 
way, tells the boy a story which may be amusing or 
satirical, as you please to take it, and spends the 
rest of the time in moralizing like an Othello. This 
is characteristic of Webster. He puts many charact- 
ers in disguise, but he never makes them materially 
alter their character or speech in order to act their 
parts. For instances of this, turn to Francisco de 
Medicis as a Moor in The White Devil; Jolenta as 
a Moor, Contarino and Ercole as friars, in The Devil's 
Law Case; and Bosola as an old man in The Duchess 
of Malfi.KOn the contrary, the disguised characters 
of Dekker are perfect actors. Angelo in The Wonder 
of a Kingdom talks broken French, and chatters like 
a Gaul ; Andelocia in Old Fortunatus hawks apples 
like a Yankee peddler, and talks unmistakable Irish ; 
and Lacy in The Shoemaker's Holidaybecom.es so Dutch 
that we hardly recognize him ourselves. 

Lastly, there is no disguise scene anywhere in 
Dekker in which the place is a street before a house, 
in which the disguised man comes to deliver a special 
message to those within, or in which the disguised 
man indulges in long moral soliloquies. 

III. 4. For this scene, I have not been able to 
find anything worth while from either author. 

IV. 1. This scene is like II. 1 in the First Part of 
The Honest Whore in that it represents a gathering of 
gallants at a strumpet's house ; there is not much 
likeness in any other way. Tenterhook's attempt to 
steal away in the disguise of a scrivener, and his 
discovery in the process, bears a rather vague re- 
semblance to the attempt of Hippolito, Infelice, and 
Matheo to escape as friars, and their discovery on 

h. 



114 Chapter VI 

the way out. Neither of the above parallelisms is 
very close. Webster has nothing at all similar. 

IV. 2. For this scene I quote again from Mr. Stoll: 1 
In Westward Ho, IV, 2, the scene in the Earl's mansion, 

where Mistress Justiniano, the object of his lust, is discov- 
ered to him dead. Like Satiro-mastix, pp. 251—263. In 
both, the Earl (or King) had enticed the woman to his 
house ; and now, bidding music sound, enters the room 
exultantly ; but only suddenly to discover her poisoned, dead. 
In both, the husband avows the deed, and reproaches the 
libertine; the latter repents; and, the danger over, the 
woman, having taken only a sleeping potion, awakes. Like 
this, too, is the first scene in the Honest Whore, in which 
the Duke, seeking to thwart the love of Hippolito for his 
daughter, gives her out for dead, but, as he is conveying 
her body through the streets, is forced to set it down that 
the lover may see her face. She, too, recovers from the 
potion, and shortly after awakes. Like it, again, are both 
Satiro-mastix and Match Me in London in the matter of the 
seduction of the woman of lower rank to the libertine noble- 
man's house. 

V. I. The way in which these citizens' wives come 
to Brainford, and then turn virtuous and fool their 
gallants, bears some likeness to the scheme of going 
to Brentford which was formed by the citizens' wives 
in The Roaring Girl, 2 and then given up when their 
better nature awakened. It was probably imitated 
from Westward Ho ; but Dekker would be more liable 
to imitate his own work. 

V. 2. This is merely a nominal scene of eight 
lines in Dyce's edition. 

V. 3. I quote again from Stoll : 1 

In Westward Ho, V, 2, [V. 3 in Dyce's Edition], Sir Gos- 
ling's forcing the bawd to dance and sing is like Tucca's 

1 John Webster, p. 72. 

2 Roaring Girl IV. 2. Suggested by Stoll. 



The Incident -Test 115 

hazing of Horace and Asinius in Satiro-ntastix. 1 In both 
the tyrant is drunk, and the frightened victims plead for 
mercy. Cf. Satiro-mastix, pp. 230 f., 234 f., 257 f. Similar is 
Bot's treatment of Candido, Honest Whore, Pt. II, IV, 3, 
and Candido's pleading. 

V. 4. Justiniano's action in removing his false hair 
near the end of this scene is twice imitated in Dekker's 
later plays, once in The Roaring Girl IV. 2, and once 
in The Honest Whore II II. 3. In each case the accom- 
panying speeches sound very much like those in 
Westward Ho, as can be seen by referring to the 
parallel passages. Of course, both of these incidents 
are imitations ; but Dekker would be more apt to 
remember and imitate his own work, especially in the 
Second Part of The Hottest Whore, which was probably 
written many years after Westward Ho. 

Northward Ho. 

I. 1. The main incident of this scene was probably 
taken indirectly from an Italian novella, 2 and therefore 
not original with either Dekker or Webster. It is 
worthy of note, however, that an incident somewhat 
similar is used again in Webster's Cure for a Cuckold 
V. 1. In each case, a young gallant pretends that 
he has enjoyed the love of an innocent woman, and 
says that she has given him a jewel which was an 
especial love-token from her husband. In each case, 
the second statement has a certain amount of literal 
truth in it, although the accompanying implication is 
wholly false. The motives of the two men are differ- 
ent: Greenshield says plainly that he has enjoyed 
the woman's love, Rochfield only hints it, and Green- 
shield's statement is made to the woman's husband, 

1 Stoll took this from Fleay. 

2 See Stoll's John Webster, p. 63. 

h2 



116 Chapter VI 

Rochfield's to a family friend ; nevertheless, the simil- 
arity here seems too great for mere chance. I cannot 
find any corresponding parallel in Dekker. 

I. 2. For analogies to Philip's arrest see Westward 
Ho III. 2. 

)\J. 3. The central idea of this scene, a jealous 
husband accusing his wife, and the woman defending 
herself, is so common that parallels to it mean almost 
nothing. There is a scene somewhat like it between 
Brachiano and Vittoria, White Devil IV. 1\^ and two or 
three such scenes are either mentioned or described 
in Dekker's Bachelor's Banquet (pages 209 and 228, 
for example) ; but none of these probably mean anything. 
Philip comes in just out of prison, as Matheo does 
in The Honest WJwre II II. 1, and as Plain Dealing 1 
does in The Whore of Babylon, p. 212. This favors 
Dekker as far as it goes, but the likeness is not 
very convincing. 

II. 1. On this scene Mr. Stoll has the following: 
In Northward Ho, II, 1 (and after), a fiery Welsh captain 

woos Doll Hornet with something of the jealousy and fer- 
vour of rivalry to be found in the wooings of Sir Owen 
and Sir Vaughan ap Rees ; and, again like Sir Owen, he 
promises her a coach and horses. 

There is also a slight similarity between the way 
that Doll gulls Allum, and the way that the wives get 
money out of their husbands in The Bachelor's Banquet 
(chapter 1, for example). Again, the procession of 
the three different types of lovers suggests somewhat 
the procession of the three different types of whores 
in the last scene of The Honest Whore, Part II. In 
each case, the mildest individual comes in the middle, 
and the fieriest last. 

1 For similarity of words see parallel passages. 



The Incident -Test 117 

II. 2. There is some likeness between this scene 
and II. 4 of The Cure for a Cuckold. In Northward Ho, 
Greenshield introduces his wife into Mayberry's home, 
pretending that she is his sister. In The Cure for 
a Cuckold, Annabel introduces Rochfield into her 
father's house as a cousin of her husband. Neither 
Kate nor Rochfield wears any disguise ; they are 
simply introduced under false names. Tibaldo Neri, 
in Dekker's Wonder of a Kingdom, is brought to Lord 
Vanni's house by Alphonsina as her sister instead of 
her brother; but Tibaldo puts on an elaborate dis- 
guise, changing his sex ; and his introduction to the 
house is not shown on the stage. 

III. 1. I quote again from Stoll: 

In Northward Ho, III, 1, and IV, 4, 1 the trick of getting 
the respectable man, Bellamont, into the company of (a) 
whores and (b) madmen. Like it (a) in Honest Whore, 
Pt. II, IV, 3, and V, 2 is Candido's being inveigled into 
hobnobbing with the old bawd and Bots, forced to 'drink, 
dance, and sing bawdy songs,' and lodged among the whores 
at Bridewell, and (b) in Pt. I, IV, 3, and V, 2, his being 
carried off, amid protestations like Bellamont's, to Bedlam. 
In all these instances, it is practical joking and horseplay. In 
connection with this, there are, in both plays, mad-scenes 
of a like stamp, introduced as a sort of diversion. ... In 
Northward Ho, in, 1, Bellamont's calling upon Doll becomes 
the cause, beyond his intention, of her falling in love with 
him and despising herself and her ways. So in the Honest 
Whore, Pt. I, II, 1 and IV, 1, Hippolito, calling upon Bella- 
front, converts her and unwittingly causes her to love him. 2 

1 IV. 3, Dyce's Edition. 

2 Mr. Stoll has the following footnote : ' Doll is not exactly 
converted ; but, in her rude way, she is at least disgusted with 
herself,— 'O filthy rogue that I am,' p. 219, and at p. 232 she 
is humble and " will be clean." ' In both cases, but more emphatic- 
ally in that of Doll, love is the cause of the change. 



118 Chapter VI 

III. 2. I cannot find any good parallel for this 
scene. However, the desire of the two prentices, 
Leapfrog and Squirrel, not to see their old master 
wronged, is very much like the spirit shown by 
George and Candido's other apprentices, when they 
think their master is abused {Honest Whore I III. 1). 

IV. 1. Stoll has the following: 

Thereupon, in Northward Ho, IV, 1, Doll comes to Bella- 
mont's house, and, though he has just forbidden any visitors, 
forces her way to him, and passionately avows her love, 
only to be scorned and rejected. Exactly so in Honest 
Whore, IV, 1, Hippolito forbids callers, yet cannot keep 
out Bellafront, who avows her love and is rejected. 

IV. 2. This scene is short and unimportant. There 
is so little action in it that no parallel incidents could 
be expected. 

"yl IV. 3. For what Mr. Stoll has to say about this 
scene, see Northward Ho III. 1. 

Both Dekker and Webster have mad-scenes, Dekker 
in the last scene of The Honest Whore, Part 7, and 
Webster in The Duchess of Malfi IV. 2. A comparison 
of these, however, with the scene in Northward Ho 
shows that the latter is far closer to Dekker. In both 
The Honest Whore and Northward Ho the mad folk 
are in their own madhouse ; the other people come 
there, and the maniacs are brought in to furnish 
a pleasant diversion. In The Duchess of Malfi, the 
lunatics have been brought from their own home into 
the Duchess' apartments ; and they are brought, not 
by her wish nor for her amusement, but to inspire 
her with terror. Moreover, the general atmosphere 
in Webster's scene is morbid and terrible, that in 
both of the other scenes light and comic. ,s >/ 
^..V. A. In this, the idea of Greenshield's acting as 
pander for his own wife, even in jest, seems to me 



The Incident -Test 119 

to have something repulsive and jarring in it. If this 
is so, it is evidence in favor of Webster's authorship. 
Webster is fond of abnormal incidents, which violate 
all our ideas of healthy family relations. For examples 
of this, turn to Flamineo as bawd for his own sister, 
the stupid Camillo persuaded out of the way for his 
own wife's dishonor, old Castrucchio fooled by his 
adulterous young wife, Leonora rival to her own 
daughter and throwing the stain of bastardy on her 
own son, Romelio anxious to ruin his own sister's 
good name, etc. )(On the contrary, Dekker, in spite 
of his fondness for introducing strumpets and scenes 
of debauchery, always treats the family with reverence. 
Even in the two most extreme cases — where Matheo 
in The Honest Whore wishes to turn his wife whore 
again for profit, and where Tibaldo Neri in The Won- 
der of a Kingdom urges his sister to act as bawd for 
him— the temporary baseness of the men only brings 
into sharper relief the virtuous indignation of Bella- 
front and the horror-stricken reproaches of Alphonsina. 
KThe arrival of Kate and Greenshield in disguise, 
and the discovery of Kate, is, on the whole, more 
like Webster. The closest parallel in Dekker is the 
discovery of the three supposed friars in their flight 
from Bedlam (last scene of Honest Wlwre, Part T). 
But here the people are trying to slip away and are 
intercepted, while in Northward Ho they come on 
purpose to meet the crowd, and join them voluntarily. 
In The Devil's Law Case V. 6, Jolenta, in the disguise 
of a Moor, is brought in by two surgeons, one 
dressed like a Jew, and discovers herself before her 
relatives and friends. Here, as in Northward Ho, the 
two disguised people come on purpose to join the 
crowd. Again, in Northward Ho we have the idea 
of two disguised people who are familiar friends 






120 Chapter VI 

meeting without knowing each other. So in The 
Devil's Law Case V. 2, Ercole and Contarino, both in 
the disguise of friars, are talking together, and Ercole 
does not know who Contarino is. Y' 

Of course, the final removal of the false hair and 
beard, and the words 'Behold the parenthesis,' were 
suggested by the end of Westward Ho ; but it should 
be noticed that neither the action nor the words at 
this point are as close to Westward Ho as they are 
in either The Roaring Girl IV. 2, or The Honest Whore II 
II. 3. In Northward Ho, others pull off the disguise, 
and there is no similarity of language; in all the 
other three scenes the man himself pulls off his false 
hair, and there is considerable likeness in the language, 
as can be seen by referring to the parallel passages, 
y. Lastly, it may be worth while to compare the way 
in which Bellamont persuades the stupid Greenshield 
to pander his own wife to them with the manner in 
which Flamineo persuades the equally stupid Camillo 
to get out of the way when Brachiano is coming to 
his wife. -J 

V. B. I quote again from Stoll: 

In Northward Ho, V, 1 [Part B according to my division], 
Doll suddenly contents herself at the end with another, in- 
ferior mate, who is entangled into marriage with her, 
through no fault of hers, by a trick. Likewise in Honest 
Whore, Part I, V, 2, Bellafront and Matheo. 



Chapter VII. 
THE CHARACTER- AND ATMOSPHERE-TEST. 

/The last test to be applied is that found in the 
general atmosphere of the various scenes, and in the 
character-study of the leading dramatis persona. This 
is obviously the most impressionistic, the least rigor- 
ously scientific, of all our tests, and consequently the 
most liable to be biased by personal prejudice. Never- 
theless, its value is unquestionable, since it takes into 
consideration certain factors which the other criteria 
fail to note; and, if every impression is critically 
compared with the material which inspired it, the 
test may be made more scientific than seems at first 
to be possible. Y 

We have the peculiar advantage in this case of 
being able to call on an unprejudiced witness. Mr. Stoll 
has already made a careful study of this test from 
the side of Dekker, and has embodied it in a short 
but pithy discussion. As he knew nothing of either 
my word-test or my parallel passages, he would be 
wholly free from bias. For this reason, I quote his 
remarks verbatim: 

y( The gallants, 1 citizens, and citizens' wives, whores and 
bawds, Welshmen and Dutchmen, are probably all Dekker's ; 
for they all appear in previous plays, such as the Shoemaker, 
Saliro-mastix, and the Honest Whore, as well as in his later 
ones. They appear in none of Webster's, whether comedy 
or tragedy. yC 

A few of these types— those that present much indivi- 
duality—we will examine a little more closely. The citizens' 

1 John Webster, p. 74, f . 



122 Chapter VII 

wives, the bawds, and the whores are done in a striking 
style, in continuation, perhaps, of Shakespeare's types, — the 
Merry Wives, Mrs. Quickly and Doll Tearsheet. Dekker's 
they are, at all events, through and through, and, as present- 
ed both in our comedies and in Dekker's other works, they 
have much in common. All three — citizen's wife, whore, 
and bawd — affect virtue, speak of it freely and complacently, 
bridle up at any infringement of what they call the pro- 
prieties or their own dignity, are coarse, in fair weather 
goodnatured, and naive. The citizens' wives — -Tenterhook, 
Honeysuckle, and Wafer in Westward Ho, as well as Gallipot, 
Tiltyard, and Openwork in the Roaring Girl, — the whores 
— Doll Hornet in Northward Ho as well as Bellafront in the 
Honest Whore — swear by their virtue, and all, even the last 
named, make much ado at the last moment to defend it. 
The bawds and whores are incensed when given their titles, 
and Mrs. Birdlime in Westward Ho, like Mistress Horseleech 
in the Honest Whore, considers a bawd not a bawd at all, 
but an honest, motherly woman. And one and all, not 
omitting the citizenesses, Mistress Minever in Satiro-mastix 
and Margery in the Shoemaker, are still more insistent on 
the minor proprieties — will not abide the coarseness and 
boisterousness of men, as drunkenness, tobacco-smoking, and 
spitting, ' swaggering,' ' conjuring,' or unseasonable familiarity. 
A rude and laughable prudishness marks them all, whether 
of foul name or fair name, both in our comedies and in 
Dekker's other plays. 

The whores, like Doll Hornet and Lucy (to compare 
Dekker's types with the representatives in our plays), are 
given to Billingsgate and bravado, to loud anger and to 
striking. The citizens' wives, like those in Westward Ho, 
are given to naive blundering and Partingtonism, to merriment 
and larks, to playing the game with a gallant to the last 
moment and then virtuously and indignantly bilking him. 
Characteristic, indeed, of both citizens' wives and whores, 
whether in our comedies or elsewhere in Dekker, is this 
wheeling about at the end: the citizens' wives undergo a 
sudden alteration, and help one another to cheat the 



The Character- and Atmosphere -Test 123 

gallants, as in Westward Ho and the Roaring Girl; and 
the whores (including Mistress Justiniano [who almost be- 
comes one]) fall really in love and by their love are con- 
verted, curse the bawd, and take on a new, unworldly tone, 
as do Doll Hornet and Bellafront. And as for the bawds, 
they, like Birdlime, are most jealous of their reputation, 
scandalized at the mere word bawd, ' honest and motherly,' 
and greatly given to aqua vita? and tricks of the trade. All 
these coarse-grained, loud, and jolly women, then, are of 
one flock, and that is Dekker's. 

Manifestly, Dekker's, too, are the Dutch Drawer and Mer- 
chant, and the Welsh Captain. A Dutch Hans had already 
appeared in the Shoemaker, as well as a Dutch skipper; 
and Captain Jenkins in Northward Ho is, in the character 
of his Cambrian English and blunders, his generosity, the 
ardor of his suit for a woman's hand, his pugnacity and 
ready, childlike placability, the counterpart of Sir Vaughan 
ap Rees in Satiro-mastix. 

Such is the testimony of Stoll. Now let us see 
what scenes he would assign to Dekker according to 
character and atmosphere. The three citizens, their 
wives, and their wives' gallants form the main part 
of I. 2, II. 1; II. 3 ; III. 1 ; III. 2 ; III. 4 ; IV. 1 ; V. 1 ; 
V. 4. (Honeysuckle and his wife appear for only 
a moment in III. 3, and their speeches then give us 
the only trace of Dekker's hand in the whole scene.) 
The whores include Westward Ho IV. 1, and North- 
ward Hoi. 2 ; II. 1 ; III. 1 ; IV. 1 ; V. B. All Stoll's 
remarks about Birdlime are based on incidents in 
II. 2 and IV. 1 of Westward Ho. The remarks about 
Mrs. Justiniano are based wholly on II. 2. The Dutch 
Drawer appears in Westward Ho II. 3; the Dutch 
Merchant in Northward Ho II. 1. Captain Jenkins 
takes part in II. 1 ; IV. 1 ; IV. 2 ; and V. B in North- 
ivard Ho. In other words, every incident or bit of 
evidence given above by Mr. Stoll is from some scene 



124 Chapter VII 






which our previous tests had assigned to Dekker 
(except Northward Ho III. 1, in which the word-test and 
parallel-passage test proved inconclusive either way). 
s( Again, Mr. Stoll goes on to point out that Dekker, 
more than any other Elizabethan dramatist, was 
a London man, full of allusions to her customs, her 
social resorts, and local geography, and that this 
element in Westward Ho and Northward Ho is proof 
of his authorship. V Now the scenes which show this 
the most in their references to Charing Cross, St. 
Paul's, Lambeth Marsh, the various taverns of London, 
etc., are Westward Ho II. 1 ; II. 3 ; IV. 1 ; and North- 
ward Ho I. 2. All of these are scenes which our 
previous tests had assigned to Dekker. 

It is true that Mr. Stoll sees something Dekkerian 
in the jealousy of Justiniano, Westward Ho I. 1 and 
III. 3, and that of Mayberry, Northward Ho I. 1 and 
I. 3 ; but, on reading carefully, we find that he is 
basing his conclusion for all these scenes on the 
incidents in Northward Ho I. 3, as they rose to his 
memory ; and Northward Ho I. 3 is an unmistakable 
Dekker scene. On the whole, then, the character- 
and atmosphere-test seems to work out satisfactorily 
as regards Dekker. Now let us turn to Webster. 

The first noticeable thing in the scenes which we 
have hitherto assigned chiefly to Webster is their 
comparative lack of mirth. Northward Ho V. A is 
the only one of these five scenes which makes much 
attempt at fun ; and even here the joke is rather heavy 
and clumsy ; we miss Dekker's bubbling wit, clever 
little turns of speech, and general lightness of touch. 
Westward Ho I. 1 and III. 3, and Northward Ho I. 1 
and II. 2, make almost no pretense of being amusing. 

Another noticeable thing about all these scenes is 
the element of suppressed passion in them. Few of 



The Character- and Atmosphere -Test 125 

Dekker's scenes contain violent passion at all ; and 
when they do — as in Westward Ho IV. 2, where Justini- 
ano denounces the Earl, or in Northward Ho I. 3, 
where Mayberry accuses his wife — that passion blazes 
out openly at white heat, spends itself by its own 
violence, and reacts in a reconciliation. But in the 
Webster scenes there is a pent-up element which is 
wholly different. Justiniano in Westward Ho I. 1 is 
not declamatory, like Mayberry in Northward Ho 

I. 3 but lowering, bitter, sarcastic. In Northward Ho 

II. 2, Mayberry is welcoming his guests with hypo- 
critical politeness, while he is training them on to 
their own misfortune, and bids his wife welcome 
them even if she wishes their throats cut. In North- 
ward Ho V. A, when Greenshield becomes convinced 
that he is made a cuckold, he utters only a few 
short, bitter sentences, and apparently is spending the 
rest of the time in pent-up savage brooding. So in the 
other works of Webster we find polite and smiling 
treachery on every hand, while most of Dekker's char- 
acters are frank and outspoken in either love or hate. 

Now when we were examining the word-test, we 
found some very profitable results from tracing the 
same character from scene to scene. This may 
prove profitable in the character-test also^ Let us 
begin with the character of the old bawd, Birdlime. 
Dekker has several bawds, Madame Fingerlock and 
Madame Horseleech in The Honest Whore, and Lady 
Dildoman in Match Me in London. A comparison of 
these ladies with Birdlime shows that she speaks very 
much like them in Westward Ho II. 2 ; II. 3 : IV. 1 ; and 
V. 4 : but that she does not seem at all like them in 
I. 1. Take, for example, the following speech from I. 1 : 

Name you any one thing that your citizen's wife comes 
short of to your lady : they have as pure linen, as choice 



126 Chapter VII 

painting. . . . Your citizen's wife learns nothing but fopper- 
ies of your lady ; but your lady or justice-o'-peace madam 
carries high wit from the city, — namely, to receive all and 
pay all, to awe their husbands, to check their husbands, 
to control their husbands ; nay, they have the trick on 't 
to be sick for a new gown, or a carcanet, or a diamond, 
or so. 

And again : 

I have heard he loved you, before you were married, 
entirely : what of that ? I have ever found it most true in 
mine own experience, that they which are most violent 
dotards before their marriage are most voluntary cuckolds 
after. Many are honest, either because they have not wit, 
or because they have not opportunity, to be dishonest ; and 
this Italian, your husband's countryman, holds it impossible 
any of their ladies should be excellent witty, and not make 
the uttermost use of their beauty. 

These are not the speeches of one of Dekker's 
bawds. The bawds of Dekker are vulgar, narrow- 
minded women, with a fulsome benevolence, and 
a strict eye to business. They never trouble them- 
selves about the abstract evils of society, but are 
wholly absorbed in their aqua vitas, their prospective 
customers, and maintaining their own reputation for 
maternal benevolence. The bitter, abstract social 
satire of the above speeches is exactly what we find 
in the speeches of Flamineo and Bosola. Compare, 
for example, the following : V 

White Devil V. 1 : Flamineo. Lovers' oaths are like 
mariners' prayers, uttered in extremity; but when the tem- 
pest is o'er, and that the vessel leaves tumbling, they fall 
from protesting to drinking. And yet, amongst gentlemen, 
protesting and drinking go together, and agree as well as 
shoemakers and Westphalia bacon; they are both drawers- 
on ; for drink draws on protestation, and protestation draws 
on more drink. 



The Character- and Atmosphere -Test 127 

Duchess of Malfi I. 1 : Bosola. Ay, to hang in a fair pair 
of slings, take his latter swing in the world upon an honour- 
able pair of crutches, from hospital to hospital. Fare ye 
well, sir; and yet do not you scorn us; for places in this 
court are but like beds in the hospital, where this man's 
head lies at that man's foot, and so lower and lower. 

Turning now to Westward Ho II. 2, we find that 
there Birdlime talks in a wholly different strain, very 
much like that of Dekker's ' motherly ' ladies. The 
following passages illustrate this: 

Westward Ho II. 2 : Birdlime. O, I thought I should 
fetch you : you can ' ha ' at that ; I'll make you hem anon. 
As I 'm a sinner, I think you '11 find the sweetest, sweetest 
bedfellow of her. O, she looks so sugaredly, so simperingly, 
so gingerly, so amorously, so amiably ! Such a red lip, 
such a white forehead, such a black eye, such a full cheek, 
and such a goodly little nose, now she's in that French 
gown, Scotch falls, Scotch bum, and Italian head-tire, you 
sent her, and is such an enticing she-witch, carrying the 
charms of your jewels about her ! O ! 

Honest Whore I III. 2 : Mrs. Fingerlock. And had she 
no time to turn honest but now? what a vile woman is 
this ! twenty pound a night, I '11 be sworn, Roger, in good 
gold and no silver : why, here was a time ! if she could ha' 
picked out a time, it could not be better: gold enough 
stirring; choice of men, choice of hair, choice of beards, 
choice of legs, and choice of every, every, everything : it 
cannot sink into my head, that she should be such an ass. 
Roger, I never believe it. 

Match Me in London I : Lady Dildoman. Delicate, pier- 
cing eye, inchanting voice, lip red and moist, skin soft and 
white ; she's amorous, delicious, inciferous, tender, neat. . . . 
New married, that's all the hole you can find in her coat, 
but so newly, the poesie of her wedding ring is scarce 
warm with the heat of her finger ; therefore my lord, fasten 
this wagtail, as soon as you can lime your bush, for women 
are Venice glasses, one knock spoils 'em. 



128 Chapter VII 

The above extracts are all fairly representative pas- 
sages ; any one who doubts this may read and see ; 
and they seem to speak for themselves. 

Again, in Westward Ho I. 1 and III. 3, Justiniano 
not only seems much more violently jealous than he 
does elsewhere, but he also seems more typically 
Italian. In the Dekker scenes he talks very much 
like an English schoolmaster, and speaks to his wife 
in IV. 2 like a middle-class English husband. He 
scarcely ever alludes to his family troubles in these 
scenes. Even his soliloquy at the end of II. 1 shows 
scarcely any personal bitterness. Rather he seems 
to adopt a sort of quizzical contemplative attitude 
toward the frailty of the weaker sex in general ; and 
he ends up with the consoling philosophy that 

If, as ivy round the elm does twine, 
All wives love clipping, there's no fault in mine. 

In both of the Webster scenes, on the contrary, he 
is an Italian, and a jealous Italian, brooding, not over 
the abstract weakness of women in general, but over 
the rankling sore of his own domestic troubles. 

This same examination cannot be pursued so prof- 
itably in Northward Ho, since there are no equally 
pronounced characters in that play which take any 
important part in the scenes of both authors. From 
what has been said above, however, it can be seen 
that the results of character- and general atmosphere- 
analysis agree at least reasonably well with the results 
of our other tests. 



Chapter VIII. 
CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE CITIZEN-COMEDIES. 

The results of the various tests discussed in the 
preceding chapters are summarized in the table which 
I give below. In this table, the letter W under a cer- 
tain test means that that test favors the authorship of 
Webster in that scene; in the same way D means 
that the authorship of Dekker is indicated. W > D 
means Webster's share greater than Dekker's, and 
D > W the opposite. W & D means that the test in- 
dicates the presence of both authors, without giving 
any definite idea as to their relative shares. Where 
the evidence for an author is weak and inconclusive, 
the letter representing his part is followed by an 
interrogation mark, as W ?. Where the evidence is 
unusually strong, the letter is followed by an exclam- 
ation mark, as D! Under the character- and 
atmosphere-test, evidence originating with myself is 
represented by a small letter— as w— in order that 
allowance may be made for prejudice in a largely 
impressionistic test. Since Stoll and other writers knew 
nothing of my word-test or parallel passages, an 
agreement between the atmosphere-test in their hands 
and the other tests in mine is about as significant as 
an agreement between two purely scientific tests. 



130 



Chapter VIII 



Westward Ho 



CP 

S 
O 
r J2 


43 

to 

© 
U 

o 


to 

*—\ 1 

M <X> 

S bO 
c3 ctf 

PL, 


43 
CO 

0) 

43 

43 

o 

CP 

s 


co 

43 
CO 

CP 

43 

"3 
p 

'£ 

CP 


43 

to 

CP 
43 

43 

Pi 

CP 

V 
O 
Pi 

1— 1 


Character- 

and 
atmosphere- 
test 

i 


Conclusions 


1.1. 


.307 


W>D 


— 


— 


w? 




w 


W>D 


2. 


.215 


W?&D 


— 


— 


D 




D 


D>(W?) 


ILL 


.169 


D! 


D? 


D? 


D 




D 


D 


2. 


.148 


D! 


— 


D 


D 




D 


D 


3. 


.155 


D 


D 


— 


D 




D 


D 


III. 1. 


.250 


D 


— 


— 


D? 




D 


D 


2. 


.234 


W&D 


— 


— 


D 




D 


D>W 


3. 


.333 


W>D 


— 


— 


W! 




w 


W>D 


4. 


.215 


D 


— 


— 


— 




D 


D? 


IV. 1. 


.169 


D 


— 


— 


D? 




D 


D 


2. 


.149 


D 


— 


D 


D! 




D 


D 


V.l. 


.200 


D 


— 


— 


D 




D 


D 


3. 


.119 


D! 








D 




D 


D 


4. 


.169 


D 


D 


— 


D 




I) 


D 



It will be seen that, although the tests given above 
modify and correct each other, they never sharply 
disagree, and usually support each other strongly. 
Such agreement between five or six different tests, 
some of them worked out by different men, ignorant 

1 It may seem as if the results of the parallel-passage test 
would be prejudiced, on the ground that a man would notice 
only such passages as he desired. But I have tried to be as 
careful and impartial as possible in this search. As an evidence 
of tins, I can point to the fact that I religiously recorded three 
or four very doubtful parallels from Webster against Northward 
Ho I. 3, a scene with a word- average of . 100 ; and afterwards 
found closer parallels from Dekker for the se very passages. Again, 
I did not hit on the idea of dividing Northward Ho V into two 
parts until after all my passages had been collected. I bad 
supposed the whole was largely Webster's, and had been hunting 
liigh and low to find parallels to it. Yet, when I came to divide 
the act, all the parallels from Webster went to Part A. 



Conclusions as to the Citizen-Comedies. 



131 



of each other's conclusions at the time- 
cannot be the result of chance. 

Northward Ho 



-such agreement 



CD 

a 

o 


co 

43 
1 

o 


Parallel 
passage-test 


CO 

CD 

43 

1 
43 

o 

(D 

'ca 
S 


CO 

to 

0> 
4a 

Is 
o 

1 

CD 


43 
00 
CD 

43 

43 

CD 

'o 
Fl 

M 


Character- 

and 
atmosphere- 
test 


CO 

PI 

_o 
'3 
ja 
13 
d 
o 
O 


1.1. 


.301 


W > D 


— 


— 


W 


w? 


W >D 


2. 


.185 


D 


— 


— 


D 


D 


D 


3. 


.100 


D 


— 


D? 


D? 


D 


D 


II. 1. 


.078 


D 


D 


— 


D 


D 


D 


2. 


.313 


W>D 


— 


— 


W? 


w 


W>D 


III. 1. 


.276 


W?&D 


— 


— 


D 


D 


W&D 


2. 


.183 


D 




— 


— 


d ? 


D 


IV. 1. 


.223 


D! 


D 


— 


D 


D 


D 


2. 


.179 


D 


D 


— 


_ 


D 


D 


3. 


.107 


D 


— 


— 


D 


D 


D 


V.A. 


.341 


W&D 


— 


— 


W? 


w 


W> D 


V.B. 


.148 


D 


D 


— 


D 


D 


D 



On the strength of the evidence summarized in the 
above tables, we can form the following conclusions 
for Westward Ho and Northward Ho : 

(a) Dekker was the guiding spirit in both plays. 

(b) The hand, or at least the influence, of Dekker 
can be definitely traced in every single scene of both 
plays. 

(c) Webster certainly wrote a considerable part, and 
probably by far the larger part, of Westward Ho I. 1 
and III. 3; and of Northward Hoi. 1, II. 2, and V. A: 
he also apparently had some part, probably a small 
one, in Westward Ho I. 2 and III. 2. 

(d) Northward Ho III. 1 is an uncertain scene, prob- 
ably written by Dekker, and retouched by Webster. 

(e) Practically all the rest of both plays is the work 
of Dekker. 

i2 



132 Chapter VIII 

(f ) Everything of real literary value in both plays, 
whether serious or comic, belongs to Dekker. 

(g) Webster has not shown in these plays any 
ability as a humorist, or manysidedness, or literary 
trait of any kind, which is different from the Webster 
of the later plays. 

(h) His small part in both of these plays, his small 
part in Marston's Malcontent, as shown by Stoll, and 
his own statements about the slowness with which 
he composed, would combine to make us suspect 
that his part in the lost collaborated plays was not 
large. 






Chapter IX. 
SIR THOMAS WYATT. 

I cannot find that Sir Thomas Wyatt has ever yet 
been divided into scenes. As such a division is 
necessary at the very beginning of a discussion like 
the present, I have made the one given below. The 
numbers of the pages are those of Dyce's Webster. 

Scene I, p. 185, ' How fares the king, my lord ? ' . . . 
p. 186, ' Her royal name that must in state be 
crowned.' 

Scene II, p. 186, k Our cousin king is dead.' . . . 
p. 187, ' Where prisoners keep their cave.' 

Scene III, p. 187, ' Thus like a nun, not like a prin- 
cess born.' ... p. 187, ' And for the daughter I through 
death will run.' 

Scene IV, p. 187, l Where's Captain Brett?' ... 
p. 188, ' 'T is more than time, my friends, that we 
were gone.' 

Scene V, p. 188, ' What, ho, porter, open the gate.' 
... p. 188, ' Is these strange turmoils' wisest violence.' 

Scene VI, p. 188, 'Though your attempt, lord 
treasurer ' . . . p. 190, ' And if the dukes be cross, 
we '11 cross their powers.' 

Scene VII, p. 190, ' Lancepersado, quarter, quarter.' 
... p. 190, ' My anchor is cast, and I in harbour ride.' 

Scene VIII, p. 190, w My lord, 't is true, you sent 
unto the council.' ... p. 192, ' My soul hath peace, 
and I embrace my end.' 

Scene IX, p. 192, k Three days are past ' . . . p. 193, 
' A hundred pound, it weighs so heavy.' 



134 Chapter IX 

Scene X, p. 193, 'By God's assistance, and the 
power of heaven ' . . . p. 195, ' To save the country, 
and this realm defend.' 

Scene XI, p. 195, ' Good morrow to the partner of 
my woe, ... p. 196, ' My Dudley, my own heart.' 

Scene XII, p. 196, ' Hold, drum ! Stand, gentlemen ! ' 
... p. 197, ' Be Englishmen, and beard them to their 
faces.' 

Scene XIII, p. 197, ' Yonder the traitor marcheth ' 
... p. 198, 'You shall all be Lord Mayors at least.' 

Scene XIV, p. 198, 'Those eight brass pieces shall 
do service now' ... p. 199, 'As e'er did faithful 
subject to his prince.' 

Scene XV, p. 199, 'Pembroke revolts and flies to 
Wyatt's side.' ... p. 199, 'I hope for nothing, there- 
fore nothing fear.' 

Scene XVI, p. 199, 'My lord of Norfolk, will it 
please you sit? ... p. 201, 'Least griefs speak louder 
when the great are dumb.' 

Scene XVII, p. 201, 'The sad aspect this prison 
doth afford ' . . . p. 204, ' Their fathers' pride their 
lives hath severed.' 

Now it may as well be said at the outset that the 
evidence which I have gathered for Sir Thomas Wyatt 
is far more meagre than that for either of the prose 
plays. In the first place, most of the scenes are 
very short; and this, while it does not render the 
word-test worthless, by any means, nevertheless makes 
it less reliable in those scenes. In the second place, 
the incident-test and the parallel-passage test prove 
weak through sheer lack of material. In both cases 
this is probably due to the fact that the play is 
a perfunctory task, which does not represent the real 
genius of either author. In the third place, the 
metrical tests, on which I had depended very much, 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 135 

usually prove disappointingly noncommittal in either 

direction. However, such evidence as I have is 

given below : and, although perhaps it seldom reaches 

the height of practical certainty, it throws more or 

less light on the authorship of nearly every scene. 

Applying the word-test, we have the following 

results : 

Sir Thomas Wyatt. 

Scene. Sold lines. Words. Average. 

I 51 13 .255 

II 48 17 .354 

III 37 7 .189 

IV 38 9 .237 
V 26 12 .461 

VI 89 32 .360 

VII 28 5 .178 

VIII 95 22 .232 

IX 66 12 .182 

X 135 53 .392 

XI 48 13 .271 

XII 75 14 .187 

XIII 70 10 .143 

XIV 42 12 .286 
XV 28 1 .036 

XVI 118 54 .458 

XVII 136 28 .206 

It will be seen that the word-average of Sir Thomas 
Wyatt is in general higher than that of either of the 
prose comedies. This is partly explained by the 
subject-matter. The pompous ceremonial of palaces 
and law-courts naturally encourages the use of long 
Latin words. But if we make a little allowance for 
this, and say that all scenes below .240 must be 
Dekker's, all scenes above .350 Webster's, we have 
only three scenes in the wide indeterminate region 



136 Chapter IX 

between, and every one of these scenes is quite 
short. Every scene in the play containing as many 
as 60 solid lines — below which length the word-test 
is never very reliable— is either above .359 or below 
.233. 

Now let us take up the various metrical tests. The 
features of Webster's mature verse-structure in which 
he differs most sharply from Dekker are : (a) A high 
percentage of run-on lines ; (b) a high percentage of 
feminine endings ; (c) a fondness for frequent tri- 
syllabic feet within the line ; (d) a very sparing use 
of rime. Now, if we look in Sir Thomas Wyatt for 
the versification of the Webster whom we know, 
there is not a single scene in which we can find it. 
There is not a scene which contains any number of 
trisyllabic feet; 1 there is not a single scene which 
contains anything like so high a percentage of run-on 
lines as the lowest of Webster's plays. Moreover the 
average of rime is higher, and the average of feminine 
endings lower, in every single scene than in the 
general average of Webster's verse. 

Now does this mean, as Mr. Stoll seems to imply, 
that Dekker wrote practically the whole play ? I think 
not. We must remember that Webster at this time 
was a crude beginner, who probably had not yet 
formed his style of versification. Sir Thomas Wyatt 
was probably written some three years before West- 
ward Ho, and some eight or ten years before The 
White Devil, the first of Webster's great tragedies. 
We know that many writers used masculine endings 
and end-stopped lines during their apprenticeship, 
and grew out of this habit later. If we assume that 
Webster changed half as much in those ten years as 

1 I have not made any table of this, but the fact is patent 
to any reader. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 



137 



Shakespeare is known to have changed, we could 
feel free to credit him with certain scenes in the 
play before us. Consequently, in assigning scenes 
to Webster by metrical tests, we should try to find 
passages which do not look too much like Dekker, 
rather than such as will have any very close likeness 
to Webster's mature work. 

With this caution in mind, let us turn to the 
following table: 

Metrical Table for Sir Thomas Wyatt. 



II 

in 

IV 

v 

VI 

VII 

VHI 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

XIV 

XV 

XVI 

XVII 






65 

60 

45 

45 

32 
107 

13 
111 

69 
160 

56 

99 

16 » 

48 

37 
122 
162 



14, 

6, 
12, 

14, 
8, 
14, 
8, 
24, 
20, 
10, 
14, 
20, 

2, 

4, 
16, 
32, 

76, 



or 21.5 °/o 
or 10 
or 26.7 
or 31.1 
or 25 
or 13.1 
or 61.5 
or 21.6 
or29 
or 6.3 
or 25 
or 20.2 
or 12.5 
or 8.3 
or 43.3 
or 26.2 
or 46.9 



p 
K 



10, or 15.4 °/ ( 

10, or 16.7 „ 

5, or 11.1 „ 

9, or 20 „ 

4, or 12.5 „ 
15, or 14 „ 


12, or 10.8 „ 

8, or 11.6 „ 
17, or 10.6 „ 

3, or 5.4 „ 
12, or 13.2 „ 

5, or 31.3 „ 
2, or 4.2 „ 

6, or 16.2 „ 
2, or 1.6 

9, or 5.5 




13, or 20 « 

13, or 21.7 

9, or 20 

2, or 4.4 

4, or 12.5 „ 

3, or 2.8 „ 


21, or 18.9 

5, or 7.2 
32, or 20 

7, or 12.5 „ 
9, or 9.9 
1, or 6.3 „ 
5, or 10.4 „ 
1, or 2.7 
9, or 7.4 
11, or 6.7 



Now let us compare the figures for Webster's later 
plays, and for three of Dekker's plays which are closest 
in time to Sir Thomas Wyatt. 

* The verse part of these scenes is so small that the metrical 
results in them can have little value. 



138 



Chapter IX 



Webster. 




The three plays of Dekker's which are most in point 
in this discussion are Fortunatus, The Whore of Babylon, 
and The Honest WJwre, Part 1. All of these were nearly 
contemporary with Sir Thomas Wyatt, and all contain 
a large amount of verse. 3 In order to be sure of our 
ground, we will take these plays up scene by scene, 
as we did in the word-test, omitting a few scenes 
which are wholly or largely prose. 

Honest Whore, Part I. 



Scene 


Lines of 
verse 


Feminine 
endings 


Run-on lines 


Riming lines 


I. 1 




92 


8, or 8.7<7o 


26, or 28.2°/ 


12, or 13 °/. 


1. 3 




97 


11, or 11.3 „ 


20, or 20.6 „ 


8, or 8.2 „ 


I. 5 


(end) 


30 


8, or 26.7 „ 


4, or 13.3 „ 


12, or 40 „ 


n. i 


(end) 


211 


31, or 14.7 „ 


35, or 16.6 „ 


52, or 24.6 „ 


in. i 


(end) 


82 


7, or 8.5 „ 


5, or 6.1 „ 


18, or 22 „ 


III. 2 




19 


9, or 47.4 „ 


3, or 15.8 „ 





in. 3 




70 


12, or 17.1 „ 


13, or 18.6 „ 


28, or 40 „ 


IV. 1 




131 


17, or 13 „ 


16, or 12.2 „ 


46, or 35.1 „ 


IV. 4 




107 


10, or 9.3 „ 


17, or 15.9 „ 


26, or 24.3 „ 


V. 1 




34 


5, or 14.7 „ 


9, or 26.5 „ 


6, or 17.6 „ 


V. 2 


(end) 


113 


14, or 12.4 „ 


18, or 16 „ 


50, or 44.2 „ 


Totals 


986 


132, or 13.4 „ 


166, or 16.8 „ 


258, or 26.2 „ 



1 Taken from Stoll. 

2 If I understand Mr. Stoll rightly, under the head of rime he 
gives the ratio of couplets to total number of lines : I give ratio 
of riming lines to total. If this is correct, his figures for rime 
should be doubled in comparing them with mine. This would 
in no way modify the conclusions. 

3 Satiro-masti'jc omitted, because it is largely prose. 



Sir Thomas IVyatt 



139 



Old Fortunatus. 



Scene 


Lines of 


■ 
Feminine — 


1 verse 


endings 


Run-on lines Riming lines 


I. 1 


234 


12, or 5.1«/o 




80, or 34.2 °/o 


1. 2 


75 


9, or 12 „ 




26, or 34.7 .. 


I. 3 


87 


6. or 6.9 ,, 




36, or 41.4 ., 


II. 1 


123 


12, or 9.8 ., 




18, or 14.*; .. 


II. 2 


159 


13, or 8.2 .. 




58, or 36.5 .. 


III. 1 


210 


25, or 11.6 „ 




62. or 28.7 „ 


III. 2 


94 


11, or 11.7 „ 




34, or 36.2 .. 


IV. 1 


151 


12, or 8 „ 




60, or 39.7 ., 


; iv. 2 


54 


2, or 3.7 „ 




18, or 33.3 „ 


V. 1 


136 


11. or 8.1 ,. 




62, or 45.6 „ 


V. 2 


280 


26, or 9.3 „ 




112, or 40 „ 


Totals 


; 1609 


J 39. or 8.6 „ 




566, or 35.2 „ 



Whore of Babylon. 



Scene 


Lines of 
verse 


Feminine i -,-> ,. 

-,. i Run-on lines 
endings 


Riming lines 


1 


251 


47, or 18.7 <>| 




18, or 7.2 '7, 


II 


285 


23, or 8.1 „ 




146. or 51.2 „ 


III 


192 


38, or 19.8 .. 




62, or 32.3 „ 


IV 


180 


33, or 18.3 .. 




36, or 20 „ 


V 


265 


52, or 19.6 „ 




40, or 15.1 „ 


VI 


160 


59, or 36.9 ., 




6, or 3.8 „ 


vm 


174 


32, or 18.4 „ 




38, or 21.8 „ 


IX 


168 


23, or 13,7 .. 




62, or 36.9 „ 


X 


305 


42, or 13.7 „ 


76, or 24.9 „ 


XII 


92 


8, or 8.7 ,. 


54, or 58.7 „ 


XIII 


50 


7, or 14 .. 


16. or 32 „ 


Totals 


2122 


364, or 17.1 „ 


554, or 26.1 .. 



A glance at the statistics for run-on lines in Webster, 
Sir Thomas Wyatt, and The Honest Whore shows that this 
test is absolutely noncommittal. Every scene in Sir 



140 Chapter IX 

Thomas Wyatt, allowing for the inadequate length of 
the extract in XIII, is just about what we find in 
Dekker's play. 

In the matter of feminine endings, the three plays 
of Dekker show a remarkable variation for so short 
a space of time. Since the general average of the 
Whore of Babylon, 1 however, is 17.1 °/ , and since six 
separate scenes in it have an average of over 18°/ , 
it is obviously quite possible that Dekker might have 
written a scene in Sir Thomas Wyatt which has an aver- 
age of 20°/o, especially when such a scene is short, 
and a single chance disy liable at the end of a line 
might raise the average of the whole scene two points. 
In Webster's plays, on the other hand, the Cure for 
a Cuckold, 1 as an entire play, has an average just 
under 20 °/ . But the Cure for a Cuckold was separated 
from Sir Thomas Wyatt by a gap of many years. The 
White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are much 
nearer in time, and consequently more in point, have 
averages so high that the highest scenes in Sir Thomas 
Wyatt seem less like Webster than like Dekker. On 
the whole, then, we may say that a percentage of 
20 in feminine endings creates a slight presumption 
in favor of Webster; but it is very slight, and is 
practically reduced to zero in scenes I, III, and 
VIII, by the fact that it disagrees there with the 
other metrical tests which are strongly in favor of 
Dekker. 

The rime-test is more decisive. In Sir Thomas Wyatt 
there are four scenes which have riming averages of 

1 It will be remembered that neither The Wlwre of Babylon 
nor the Cure for a Ctickold is of wholly undisputed authorship. If 
we lay these aside in discussing feminine endings, Webster's 
average in his other plays will be as much above 20°/ as 
Dekker's is below that mark throughout. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 141 

13°/o or below, while all the other scenes in the 
play — with the exception of XIII, which is a mere 
fragment— are well above 20°/ . Now in the three 
plays of Dekker's analyzed above, out of a total of 
thirty-two scenes — excluding Honest Whore III. 2, 
which is only 19 lines long — there are only seven 
scenes which have averages below 20°/ , and only 
three which have averages below 13°/o. 1 This is not 
positive proof: Dekker might have written the low 
scenes in Wyatt; but it creates a presumption in 
favor of Webster. Again, we are certain that Webster 
had some share in this play, and we know that in 
his later plays he never has a rime-average of 20°/ . 
Consequently, we cannot give Webster any of the 
other scenes without supposing that he used rime 
now as he never did later. Such a supposition is 
possible, since Webster was then in his formative 
stage ; but it seems rather improbable. We are 
willing to give him some scenes with comparatively 
few feminine endings, because there are no other 
scenes, and he must have some share in the play ; 
but when we find certain scenes with the low 
rime-average of Webster's extant work, and other 
scenes with the high average common in Dekker, the 
presumption certainly is that they should be divided 
accordingly. This would give to Webster Scenes 
II, VI, X, and XIV, and in doing so would agree 
with the word-test, since all of these are scenes with 
high word-averages. 

There are one or two other peculiarities of Dekker's 
rime which are worth noting. He frequently uses the 
rime of a short, imperfect line with a long one, or 

1 This same continuous high average in rime is found through- 
out Dekker's other plays also, although I have not troubled 
the reader with the exact figures. 



142 Chapter IX 

riming couplets in which one line has a pronounced 
break just before the rime ; and he is also fond of rime 
between the last line of one speech and the first line of 
the next. Webster very seldom uses any of these, 
although isolated specimens of all three can be found 
in his works. Now tricks of rime like this could not 
be attributed to Webster on the ground that he was 
a beginner ; they are matters, not of age, but of 
idiosyncrasy. Consequently, these are valuable evi- 
dence. In looking over the table of these rime-tests, 
we must not lay too much stress on one or two 
instances, because, in the first place, W T ebster does 
use them occasionally, and, in the second place, one 
or two of them might, like one or two parallel passages, 
simply represent a touch of Dekker's pen in revising. 
When, however, we find an unusual number of these 
peculiarities in a scene, we may consider it specially 
strong evidence of Dekker's work. Such is the case in 
Scenes VIII, XV, XVI, XVII, and perhaps also I and IV. 

Now it will be noticed that in VIII, XV, XVII, 
I, and IV, these metrical criteria agree perfectly with 
the word-test ; but that in XVI they, and the general 
rime-test also, defy it point blank. As a matter of 
fact, we shall find other tests disagreeing about XVI. 
It is a peculiar scene, and one which can only be 
explained, I think, by assuming collaboration between 
the authors. We will discuss this more at length 
separately. 

Putting aside scene XVI then for the present, 
we find that the word-test and the metrical tests agree 
in giving Webster II, VI, X, and probably XIV, 
although the word-average here is only .286. The 
metrical tests and word-test agree in giving Dekker 
VIII, XV, XVII, and I and IV, although the metrical 
evidence is not so strong in the last two. Scene V 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 143 

is a very short scene, and its brevity makes all tests 
applied to it uncertain. Its high word-average points 
to Webster, while the rime in it would suggest Dekker, 
but would not be absolutely impossible for Webster. 
In all the other scenes the low word-average receives 
some support from the high percentage of rime ; 
and the two together point strongly, but hardly 
conclusively, to Dekker. 

So much for metrical tests. Now under the parallel- 
passage and incident-tests there is so little material 
that I shall not attempt to take them up separately ; 
but instead will go through the play scene by scene, 
saying everything that can be said about each scene 
as it comes. 

Scene I. There is one parallel passage from Dekker : 

Wyatt I : 

Our ocean shall his petty brooks devour. 

Wonder of a Kingdom II : 

Be not the sea, 
To drink strange rivers up. yet still be dry. 
Whore of Babylon, p. 231 : 

You see what ocean can replenish you, 
Be you but duteous, tributary streams. 

The following quotation from Stoll, containing a long 
extract from this scene, is also in point here : 

Wyatt 1 speaks with an abrupt force, a dogged reiteration, 
and a breeziness very like Dekker. 

I '11 damn my soul for no man, no, for no man. 
Who at doomsday must answer for my sin? 
Not you, nor you, my lords. 

Who named Queen Jane in noble Henry's days ? 
Which of you all durst once displace his issue ? 
My lords, my lords, you whet your knives so sharp 

1 John Webster, p. 50. 



144 Chapter IX 

To carve your meat, 

That they will cut your fingers. 

The strength is weakness that you build upon. 

The King is sick, — God mend him, ay, God 

mend him! — 

But were his soul from his pale body free, 

Adieu, my lords, the court no court for me ! 
That is certainly not Webster's hand, and certainly is 
Dekker's. Parallels in Dekker are abundant ; a short search 
yields these : 

Terrill. If she should prove mankind, 'twere rare — fie, fie, 
See how I lose myself amongst my thoughts, 
Thinking to find myself; my oath, my oath. 

Sir Quin. I swear another, let me see by what, 
By my long stocking and my narrow skirts, 
Not made to sit upon, she shall to court. 
I have a trick, a charm, that shall lay down 
The spirit of lust, and keep thee undeflowered ; 
Thy husband's honour saved, and the hot King, 
Shall have enough, too. Come, a trick, a charm. 

Sat. p. 225. * 

Candido. My gown, George, go, my gown. — A happy land, 
Where grave men meet each cause to understand. 



Come, where 's the gown? 

Good wife, kind wife, it is a needful trouble, but for 

my gown ! 
H. IV. p. 139. 2 
George. Do 't ; away, do 't. lb. p. 135. 

Lodovico. Do, do, bravely. lb. p. 222. 

Tucca. Crispinus shall do 't, thou shalt do 't, heir apparent 
of Helicon, thou shalt do 't. Sat. p. 210. 

Here there is the same liveliness, boisterousness, downright- 
ness of manner, and — what is equally significant — the same 
style and rhythm. 

1 Dekker's Works. * Mermaid Ed. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 145 

Scene II. The high word-average and low rime- 
average of this scene are supported by three parallel 
passages from Webster: 

(a) Wyatt II : 

The nattering bells that shrilly sound 
At the king's funeral. 
White Devil HI. 2 : 

What are whores ! 
They are those flattering bells have all one tune, 
At weddings and at funerals. 

(b) Wyatt II : 

Who would wear fetters, 
Though they were all of gold, or to be sick, 
Though his faint brows for a wearing night-cap 
Wore a crown? 
Duchess of Malfi IV. 2 : 

What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut 

With diamonds? or to be smothered 

With cassia? or to be shot to death with pearls? 

(c) Wyatt II: 

Guild. The Tower will be a place of ample state : 
Some lodgings in it will, like dead men's skulls, 
Remember us of frailty. 

Jane. We are led 

With pomp to prison. O prophetic soul ! 
Lo, we ascend into our chairs of state 
Like several coffins, in some funeral pomp, 
Descending to their graves. 

Monumental Column'. 

Thy foundation doth betray 
Thy frailty, being builded on such clay. 
This shows the all-controlling power of fate, 
That all our sceptres and our chairs of state 
Are but glass-metal, that we are full of spots, 
And that, like new-writ copies, to avoid blots, 
Dust must be thrown upon us. 
k 



146 Chapter IX 

White Devil IV. 1 : 

You speak as if a man 
Should know what fowl is coffined in a baked meat 
Afore you cut it open. 

The following extracts from both Webster and 
Dekker should also be mentioned here. I do not 
think that they give Dekker a counter claim to the 
above passage, because, in the first place, they paral- 
lel only one phrase, whereas the Monumental Column 
runs parallel to the whole thought; and, secondly, 
because the passage from Dekker which is closest in 
wording — the one from Satiro-mastix — is wholly differ- 
ent in tone, being facetious instead of serious. 
Nevertheless, the following passages show the danger 
of assigning speeches recklessly to Webster, simply 
because they mention a dead man's skull. Possibly 
they may also show the influence of one of these 
poets on the other. 

(1) Webster's Duchess of Malfi III. 5 : 

Your kiss is colder 
Than that I have seen an holy anchorite 
Give to a dead man's skull. 
White Devil V. 4 : 

O, fatal ! he throws earth upon me ! 
A dead man's skull beneath the roots of flowers. 1 
Dekker's Satiro-mastix, 2 p. 238: 

If a bare head (being like a dead man's skull) 
Should bear up no praise else but this, it sets 
Our end before our eyes. 



1 Notice that here the vision of the skull does ' remember ' 
Flamineo ' of frailty '. 

2 Satiro-mastix -was published in 1602, the same year in which 
Henslowe mentions Lady Jane, which was probably the same 
play as Sir Thomas Wyatt. So we cannot tell which passage 
was written first. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 147 

Phoenix, p. 96: Sithence then that worms must be our 
last companions, and that the pillows upon which we are 
to rest for ever are within but dead men's skulls, whereof 
should we be proud ? 
Honest Whore I II. 1 : 

Though his face 
Look uglier than a dead man's skull. 

Stoll quotes passage (c) above, and also the second 
line of this scene, 

Alas ! how small an urn contains a king ! 
as the only things in the whole play which seemed 
to him especially suggestive of Webster. On the 
whole, whether Dekker had any hand in this scene 
or not, it seems practically certain that Webster wrote 
most of it. 

Scenes III and IV. For these two scenes I have 
no additional evidence. 

Scene V. The shortness of this scene makes both 
the word-test and the metrical tests rather uncertain. 
However, it is very closely connected in incident 
with the following scene, as this shows the flight of 
the treasurer, and the next scene opens with the 
treasurer seeking pardon, while these are the only 
two scenes in which the treasurer appears. As the 
next scene is probably Webster's, this would natur- 
ally go with it. There is one very Dekkerian peculi- 
arity of rime : 

Treasurer. Is my horse ready? 

Porter. It is, my lord, 

Treasurer. Then will I fly this fearful council board. 

but this might simply mean that the scene was 
retouched. No very certain conclusions can be drawn. 
Scene VI. The only additional evidence to support 
Webster's authorship in this scene is the character 
of Wyatt. His speeches here seem more argumen- 

k2 



148 Chapter IX 

tative, colorless, and trite than in the Dekker scenes. 
It is nothing very pronounced, however, and may be 
merely a matter of personal impression. As the scene 
is 89 solid lines long, the high word-test and low 
rime-test together seem strong evidence for Webster, 
even without other support. 

Scene VII. The atmosphere of this scene is cer- 
tainly that of Dekker's low-life studies. Brett, the 
clown, and the market girl with her eggs, are just 
such sketches as we get in The Shoemaker's Holiday 
and similar plays. This, with the low word-average 
and four riming couplets in only 13 lines of verse, 
points strongly to Dekker. 

Scene VIII. Stoll quotes the following passage 
from this scene as especially typical of Dekker: 

O, at the general sessions, when all souls 
Stand at the bar of justice, and hold 
Their new-immortalized hands, O then 
Let the remembrance of their tragic ends 
Be razed out of the bead-roll of my sins ! 

He says of this and similar passages : 

For in these there is a sweet personal tone — one that 
Webster never shows, and had he ever had, he could 
hardly have so outlived, — that is altogether like that of the 
creator of Jane fin Shoemaker s Holiday] Bellafront, and 
Orlando Friscobaldo. 

The following parallel passage between this scene 
and Scene VI should also be noticed here. Just 
what it indicates is uncertain. Scene VIII must be 
largely by Dekker, and Scene VI must be partly at 
least by Webster. 

Wyatt VIE: 

Amen; I bear a part; 
Ay, with my tongue, — I do not with my heart. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 149 

VI. p. 188: 

Yet have I borne a part, 
Laying the commons' troubles next my heart, 
p. 189: 

O, let mine eyes, 
In naming that sweet youth observe their part, 
Pouring down tears sent from my swelling heart. 

Stoll thinks that these sound like Dekker, and it 
is true that the rime of a full line with a fragment 
of another is much more common in Dekker, although 
it is not — as Stoll seems to imply — wholly unknown 
in Webster. 

Scene IX. The low word-average and high rime- 
percentage here are supported by the following 
passages from Dekker : 

(a) Wyatt IX : 

God pardon thee, 
And lay not to thy soul this grievous sin ! 
Farewell; and when thou spend'st this ill-got gold, 
Remember how thy master's life was sold: 
Thy lord that gave thee lordships, made thee great, 
Yet thou betray'd'st him as he sat at meat. 

Virgin Martyr IV. 2 : 1 

Dor. You two, whom I like fostered children fed, 

And lengthened out your starved life with bread ; 
You be my hangmen ! whom, when up the ladder 
Death haled you to be strangled, I fetched down, 
Clothed you, and warmed you, you two my tormentors ! 

Both. Yes, we. 

Dor. Divine Powers pardon you ! 

(b) Wyatt IX : O God, O God, that ever I was born ! 
Roaring Girl IV. 2 : O God, O God, feed at reversion 

now ? [?] 

(c) Wyatt IX : O, colon cries out most tyrannically ! 

1 The authorship of this scene is uncertain as yet, but it 
sounds like Dekker throughout. 



150 Chapter IX 

Virgin Martyr III. 3:* And curse my feet for not ambling 
up and down to feed colon. 

Stoll speaks of a Dutch phrase in the last speech, 
by which I suppose he means 'rustic and lustic' 
This would, of course, point to Dekker. 

Finally there is some likeness of incident between 
this scene and The Virgin Martyr. Here a low servant, 
who has been kindly treated by his master, betrays 
him for money, is reproached as shown in passage (a), 
and hangs himself in remorse. In The Virgin Martyr 
two servants who have been kindly used by their 
mistress, Dorothea, act as her tormentors for money, 
are reproached by her as shown in passage (a), and 
then are led out and hanged by the officers of the law. 

Scene X. There is one marked parallel passage 
from Webster : 

Wyatt X : 

The fox is subtle, and his head once in, 
The slender body easily will follow. 
White Devil III. 2 : 
He that does all by strength, his wit is shallow : 
Where a man's head goes through, each limb will follow. 
There is also one little detail of incident, which, 
though not strong, may point to Webster. Queen 
Mary speaks here of Philip's picture, and the impression 
which it makes on her. Pictures play an important 
part in Webster's plays. In The White Devil, Isabella 
is accustomed to steal out nightly to kiss the painting 
of her husband, and she is poisoned by an ointment 
smeared over it. In The Devil's Law Case III. 1, 
Leonora gazes at a picture and receives an evil in- 
spiration from it; and again in IV. 2, Crispiano's 
picture is brought into court and shown as 

1 This scene has been generally assigned to Dekker. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 151 

evidence. l I cannot find anything like this in Dekker, 
nor is there any mention of a picture of Philip in 
Holinshed's Chronicle, the source of Wyatt. 

These things, together with the very high word- 
average, the very low rime-average, and the unusual 
length of the scene, which makes both of these tests 
more reliable, make it certain that Webster wrote 
part of this scene, and probable that he wrote nearly 
all of it. 

Scene XL At first sight, the account of Jane's 
dream here sounds a little like that of the Duchess of 
Malfi, told in III. 5 of that play. Stoll, however, very 
justly says that this is simply part of the traditional 
machinery in this type of play, repeated frequently 
in earlier plays, 2 and therefore meaning practically 
nothing as to authorship. The moderate word-average 
and high rime-average point to Dekker, and there 
seems to be nothing to contradict this assumption. 
The general tone is certainly that of Dekker. Take, 
for example, the closing lines: 

Guild. Entreat not, Jane : though she our bodies part, 
Our souls shall meet: farewell, my love! 

t ane My Dudley, my own heart! 

This is, in a cruder form, the simple pathos of Bella- 
front in The Honest Whore, and of Jane in The Shoe- 
maker's Holiday. 

Scene XII. The evidence of the word-test and 
metrical tests is supported by the following parallel 
passages from Dekker: 

» Also Contarino asks Leonora for her picture, by which he 
means her daughter, Devil's Law Case i. l. m , ir(>v , 

» Stoll mentions these : Richard m i. 4 ; v. 3 , Duke Humphrey s 
and his wife's dreams in Contention, pp. 421-422; Henry VI n I. 2; 
Sir Thomas More, Dyce ed., p. 75. 



152 Chapter IX 

(a) Wyatt XII : 

Fight valiantly, and by the Mary God, 
You that have all your lifetime silver lacked 
Shall get new crowns— marry, they must be cracked. 
Shoemaker's Holiday I. 1 : Crack me the crowns of the 
French knaves; a pox on them, crack them; fight, by the 
Lord of Ludgate ; fight, my fine boy. 

(b) Wyatt XII [speaking of Sir George Harper] : 
Henceforth, all harpers for his sake shall stand, 
But for plain ninepence throughout all the land. 

The Peace is Broken, p. 160 [Petition of vintners to the 
Empress Money] : May it therefore please thee ... to send 
at least some of thy harpers to sound their nine-penny 
music in our ears. 

(c) Wyatt XII: He shall pass and repass, juggle the best 
he can. 

Shoemaker's Holiday IV. 5: For they mean to fall to their 
hey-pass and repass, pindy pandy, which hand will you have 
very early. [?] 

The following passage is quoted from this scene 
by Stoll as very typical of Dekker. The remarks 
which he makes on the extract already cited in Scene I 
were applied to this also. For these, and somewhat 
parallel citations from Dekker's works, see the dis- 
cussion of that scene. 

Wyatt. He shall pass and repass, juggle the best he can. 
Lead him into the city. Norry, set forth, 
Set forth thy brazen throat, and call all Rochester 
About thee; do thy office; fill 
Their light heads with proclamations, do; 
Catch fools with lime-twigs dipt with pardons. 
But Sir George, and good Sir Harry Isley, 
If this gallant open his mouth too wide, 
Powder the varlet, pistol him, fire the roof 
That's o'er his mouth. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 153 

He craves the law of arms, and he shall ha 't : 

Teach him our law, to cut 's throat if he prate. 

If louder reach thy proclamation, 

The Lord have mercy upon thee! 
Norry. Sir Thomas, I must do my office. 
Harp. Come, we'll do ours, too. 
Wyatt. Ay, ay, do, blow thyself hence. 

Whoreson, proud herald, because he can 

Give arms, he thinks to cut us off by th' elbows. 

Masters, and fellow soldiers, say will you leave 

Old Tom Wyatt? 

(This scene as a whole is clearly Dekker's.) 

Scene XIII. There are two parallel passages from 
Dekker : 

(a) Wyatt XIII : If you give an inch he '11 take an ell ; if 
you give an ell he'll take an inch. 

Honest Whore II II. 2 : If you give your wife a yard 
she '11 take an ell. . . . For, if you take a yard, I '11 take an 
ell. [*] 

(b) Wyatt XIII [Brett's address to his men] : My fine, 
spruce, dapper, finical fellows. 

Shoemaker s Holiday III. 1 : Stay, my fine knaves, you 
arms of my trade, you pillars of my profession. 1 

III. 4 : Now, my true Trojans, my fine Firk, my dapper 
Hodge, my honest Hans, 1 etc. 

Like Dekker, too, and unlike Webster, are the 
jokes of Brett and the clown, the use of such slang 
or nonsense words as ' Camocho,' ' Calimanco,' and 
the reference to Dondego's and Paul's cathedral. 
This, combined with the decidedly low word-average, 
clearly shows this scene to be Dekker's. 

Scene XIV. This is an uncertain scene. The word- 
average is .286, which rather favors Webster, but is 
not impossible for Dekker, especially in so short 

1 Pointed out by Stoll. 



154 Chapter IX 

a scene. Every single metrical test that can be 
applied favors Webster; but these are not so con- 
clusive as they would be in a longer extract. It will 
be noticed that, although Brett and the clown are on 
the stage, they say almost nothing. This looks as if 
the author of the scene did not feel at home with 
such characters. On the whole, the evidence favors 
Webster, but is decidedly inconclusive. 

Scene XV. A word-average of .036, a rime-average of 
43.3 °/ , and the support of every other metrical test, 
would seem to give this plainly to Dekker, in spite 
of its brevity and lack of supporting evidence. 

Scene XVI. There are two parallel passages for 
this scene, a fairly good one from Webster, and 
a strong one from Dekker: 

Webster : 
Wyatt XVI : » 

And will you count such forcement treachery? 
Then make the silver Thames as black as Styx, 
Because it was constrain'd to bear the barks 
Whose battering ordnance should have been employ'd 
Against the hinderers of our royalty. 
White Devil III. 1 : 

Condemn you me for that the duke did love me! 
So may you blame some fair and crystal river 
For that some melancholic distracted man 
Hath drowned himself in 't. 

Dekker. 
Wyatt XVI : 

Great men. like great flies, through laws' cobwebs 

break, 
But the thinn'st frame the prison of the weak. [*] 

1 I found out afterward, that Mr. Stoll had already noticed 
this parallelism. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 155 

The Devil is in It, p. 287 : 
Jovinelli. You must hang up the laws. 

Octavio. Like cobwebs in foul rooms, through which 

great flies 
Break through, the less being caught by the 

wing there dies. 1 
Match Me in London IV: 

You oft call Parliaments and there enact 

Laws good and wholesome, such as whoso break 

Are hung by th' purse or neck, but as the weak 

And smaller flies i' the spider's web are ta'en, 

When great ones tear the web and free remain. 

Whore of Babylon, p. 231 : 

Home we '11 therefore send 

These busy working spiders ... let them there 

Weave in their politic looms nets to catch flies. 

Notice that the passage from Match Me in London 
uses the very same rimes. ' break ' and ' weak.' as are 
used in Wyatt. 

Now, what are we to say about this scene? The 
word-average in it, .458, is very high, very strong for 
Webster ; the metrical tests are very strong for Dekker, 
and we have passages from both. If we analyze the 
scene, we shall find some things rather peculiar about 
the metrical details. All the traces of Dekker seem 
to be bunched together in three passages, aggregating 
only about 40°/ of the verse-part of the scene, and 
the second of these contains the parallel passage 
from Dekker given above, while the parallel passage 
from Webster is not included in any of these. 
Leaving out the prose part, this is the way the scene 
divides up : 

Lines 1-40, no rime. 

„ 41-54, 6 couplets. 
1 The first of these parallels, the one from The Dn.nl is in It, 
was pointed out by Dyce. The others have not before been noticed. 



156 Chapter IX 

Lines 55-68, no rime. This contains the parallel 
passage to Webster. 

„ 69-99, 8 couplets. This contains the parallel 
passage to Dekker. 

„ 100-116, no rime. 

„ 117-122, 2 couplets. 
Moreover, in the portions which are free from rime, 
some of the lines have a powerful, rugged beat 
accompanied with trisyllabic feet, which is not typical 
of Dekker, and somewhat like the mature Webster. 
Again, putting the riming lines by themselves, we 
have 32 verse-lines, or about 27 solid lines, containing 
only 6 trisyllabic Latin words, or an average of 
about .200, while the average of the whole scene 
is .458. 

Of course, this slicing up of scenes has its dangers, 
and we must not lay too much stress upon its 
results: but nevertheless, when we compare these 
facts with the high word-test, it certainly does look 
as if Webster wrote the original scene, and Dekker 
retouched certain parts of it. 

Additional evidence of Webster's original authorship 
is furnished by the incident-test. Holinshed's chron- 
icle, the source of this play, gives no description of 
the trial of Lady Jane, merely stating in less than 
a sentence that she was tried and taken back to 
prison. True, there is on another page 1 quite a des- 
cription of the Duke of Northumberland's trial, and 
this has obviously furnished some suggestions for 
Scene XVI, since he speaks similarly there of pleading 
to the indictment, and of the partiality which condemns 
him and spares his fellow-offenders; but the fact 
remains that there was nothing in Holinshed which 
rendered a trial-scene for Lady Jane necessary, or 

1 Holinshed's Chronicle 4, 4, ed. of 1808. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 157 

even strongly suggested it. The idea of a trial- 
scene must have originated in a man who had 
a natural tendency to trial-scenes. Dekker em- 
phatically was not such a man, for there is not 
a single court-scene in all his writings. Webster 
emphatically was such a man, for he has left us 
three court trial-scenes x in a total output of only 
four plays and part of another. Moreover, in every 
one of Webster's trial-scenes we find a large amount 
of short, sharp dialogue and personal recrimination 
between different people, such as would never be 
allowed in an actual trial. This is just what we find 
in the trial of Lady Jane. 

To conclude, then, it is certain that both writers 
had a hand in this scene, and it seems probable that 
Webster wrote the original scene, and that Dekker 
retouched parts of it. 

Scene XVII. This is clearly Dekker's. The metrical 
evidence of every kind is overwhelmingly in his 
favor, far more so than in any other scene in the 
play. This agrees perfectly with the low word-test. 
The general atmosphere and spirit of the scene 
throughout is also Dekker's. In addition to all this, 
we have some help from the incident and parallel- 
passage tests. 

In Match Me in London IV, we have the same 
picture of an executioner begging pardon of his 
intended victim ; and there is some similarity in wording 
as well as in action. 

Wyatt XVII 

Win. It is her headsman. 

Guild. And demands a pardon. 

Only of her for taking off her head? 

1 White Devil ill. 1 ; Devil's Law Case IV. 2 ; Appius and Virginia IV. 1. 



158 Chapter IX 

Match Me in London IV: 
John. 'S death, what are these? 

Valasco. Your executioners appointed by the king. 
John. These my executioners, 

And you my overseer, why kneel they? 
Valasco. To beg your pardon, for they fear their work 

Will never please you. 

Again, in both this scene and The Virgin Martyr 
IV. 3, we have a beautiful and innocent young woman 
brought out to execution before her lover or husband ; 
and in each case the lover swoons away from excess 
of emotion. There is some likeness in spirit, though 
hardly in phraseology, between the speeches of Jane 
and Dorothea on these occasions. 

Wyatt XVII : 
Jane. Off with these robes, O, tear them from my side! 
Such silken covers are the gilt of pride. 
Instead of gowns, my coverture be earth, 
My worldly death a new celestial birth! 

O God, 

How hardly can we shake off this world's pomp, 
That cleaves unto us like our body's skin ! 
Yet thus, O God, shake off thy servant's sin ! 

Virgin Martyr IV. 3: 1 
Dorothea. Nothing but to blame 

Thy tardiness in sending me to rest; 
My peace is made with Heaven, to which my soul 
Begins to take her flight : strike, O ! strike quickly ; 
And, though you are unmoved to see my death, 
Hereafter, when my story shall be read, 
As they were present now, the hearers shall 
Say of this Dorothea, with wet eyes, 
' She lived a virgin, and a virgin dies.' 

1 I believe critics have not been unanimous as to the author- 
ship of this scene ; but the very similarities given above would 
help to prove it Dekker's. 



Sir Thomas Wyatt 159 

Conclusion for Sir Thomas Wyatt. In the light of 
what has been said, it seems probable that Webster 
wrote most of Scenes II, V, VI, X, XIV, and XVI, 
although some of these scenes were certainly retouched 
by Dekker, and all of them may have been. The 
rest of the play is almost certainly Dekker's. This 
would give Webster something like a third of the 
whole play, a much larger share than he had in 
either of the citizen comedies. 

The above division is made on the assumption that 
Webster and Dekker were the only men concerned 
in this play. As a matter of fact, although this is 
the testimony of the title-page, it is not an absolute 
certainty. Sir Thomas Wyatt is generally supposed to 
be an abridgment of a play mentioned by Henslowe 
under the title of Lady Jane. Henslowe speaks of 
Lady Jane as being written in two parts, the second 
wholly the work of Dekker, and the first the joint produc- 
tion of Webster, Dekker, Heywood, Chettle, and Smith. 
Consequently, it is possible that passages from Chettle, 
Heywood, or Smith may be embodied in Sir Thomas 
Wyatt. 1 But it would be useless to discuss such 
questions as these at present, since no practical 
results could follow. We have offered such 
evidence as we possess on the shares of Dekker and 
Webster; and here we stop. 

1 The number of feminine endings in I, II, and VIII might 
indicate that the work of Dekker here was mixed with that of 
some other writer with a comparatively low word-average. Like- 
wise Scene VI is a very colorless scene, with remarkably few 
feminine endings, and might be partly the work of any writer 
who had a high word-average. As shown already, however, 
these could be explained as the work of Dekker and Webster 
respectively. 



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